


The Rise of Hero's

by TheNightFury



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014), Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Baby Hiro, Kind of sort of a crossover, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-19
Updated: 2016-02-18
Packaged: 2018-04-27 03:25:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 22,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5031943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNightFury/pseuds/TheNightFury
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tadashi Hamada was sure life couldn't get any better, he had a wonderful boyfriend, a job, a scholarship to a great school and his brother, something he hadn't thought possible eight months ago. Tadashi's world is shattered when he discovered Fred's dad is a super hero and the frightening past of his brother's best friend Ezra. Sequel to Little Wonders.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! Sorry this took a little longer then I intended to get posted. School got kind of crazy but it's finally finished! Hope you enjoy!!

If Tadashi was honest with himself, he was sad to see that winter break was almost over. After such a rough semester it was nice being able to take a few weeks off to just spend time with Hiro and Fred. Tadashi tried to remind himself that he still had a week of winter break to enjoy, but it was still sad to think about going back to school. He just hoped this next semester went smoother than last. 

After nearly running himself to the ground last semester trying to work every second he wasn’t doing something school related Tadashi swore he’d take some time off to spend with Fred and Hiro. 

After finishing a repair on some pipes in the kitchen Tadashi was looking for his brother and boyfriend but was so far having little success in actually finding them…

“Tadashi!” Fred shouted, jumping onto Tadashi from behind and tightly hugging him, pinning his arms to his side. 

“Dashi!” Hiro shouted, clinging onto Tadashi’s leg like a monkey. Tadashi awkwardly flailed his arms trying to keep himself from toppling over from the sudden weight so he wouldn’t hurt Hiro. 

“What the- guys!” Tadashi exclaimed, trying to sound angry but instead he found himself laughing. 

“What we’re just saying hi!” Fred declared, kissing Tadashi’s cheek. 

“And showing how much we love you!” Hiro added, nuzzling Tadashi’s leg. 

Tadashi smirked and asked, “You’re showing me you love me by nearly killing me?”

“Dashi please falling wouldn’t kill you,” Fred said with a serious expression on his face. “Just seriously maim.” 

“Oh as long as it’s not death,” Tadashi deadpanned. 

“Yep,” Fred agreed, nuzzling into Tadashi’s back. “I love you too much to let you die.” 

“I love you guys you know that?” Tadashi asked with a laugh.

“Of course babe!” Fred exclaimed, kissing Tadashi’s cheek again. Hiro giggled and said,

“We know Dashi!” Tadashi grinned down at Hiro and asked, 

“So did you guys need something or where you just saying hi?”

“We’re here to kidnap you!” Hiro exclaimed, tightening his grip around Tadashi’s leg. 

“No more working today!” Fred added. 

“I wasn’t planning on it!” Tadashi exclaimed, laughing. 

“Oh….really?” Fred sheepishly asked. 

“Really,” Tadashi assured, smiling warmly at Fred. 

“Oh….well this is awkward….” Fred mumbled, reluctantly releasing Tadashi. 

“No, it’s cute,” Tadashi assured, turning so he could properly kiss Fred. 

“Ew!” Hiro moaned, shutting his eyes and burying his face in Tadashi’s leg. 

“Oh come on buddy!” Tadashi said, pouting. “It’s not that gross.” 

“Does our relationship really bother you?” Fred asked, sounding hurt. 

“No, kissing is gross!” Hiro said, making a face. Tadashi and Fred looked at each other, smirking. Tadashi then quickly bent over and picked Hiro up so they could kiss Hiro’s cheeks, much to the toddlers horror. 

“No! Ew stop!” Hiro groaned, trying to wiggle out of Tadashi’s grip. Tadashi and Fred both burst into laughter and started tickling Hiro mercilessly. 

“You are at the mercy of the tickle monster!” Fred exclaimed, laughing maniacally. 

“No!” Hiro cried, going limp in Tadashi’s arms. 

“You can never escape!” Tadashi added darkly. 

“No please let me go!” Hiro cried, looking up at Tadashi with wide eyes and a pout. 

“Aww look at that face,” Tadashi cooed. “How can I say no?”

“Easy, no!” Fred exclaimed. “He’s so cute I could eat him! In fact….” Fred teasingly smirked before pretending to eat him. 

“Fred!” Tadashi gasped, pretending to look horrified. “You can’t eat him! You’ll spoil your dinner!” 

“Oh, sorry,” Fred said, no longer ‘eating’ Hiro. 

“Dashi Fred was going to eat me!” Hiro shouted, pouting. 

“Don’t worry I stopped him from spoiling his dinner,” Tadashi assured, winking at Fred. Hiro pouted up at Tadashi who kissed his cheek and said, “Hey don’t worry buddy I’d never let someone eat you or anything like that okay?”

“Okay!” Hiro said, nuzzling up against Tadashi. 

Tadashi started laughing and asked, “Do you guys want to maybe watch a movie or something before getting some dinner?” 

“Yea!” Hiro exclaimed, a wide grin on his face. 

“Yea movie marathon!” Fred exclaimed, throwing his fists in the air. Tadashi burst out laughing and kissed Fred’s cheek before heading towards the gaming room, holding Hiro with one arm and holding Fred’s hand with the other. Fred gently swung their hands as they walked and Tadashi found himself imagining them doing things like this every day. 

Before he could think any more about it, he spotted Mary dusting down the hall. Mary glared at Tadashi as they passed, lips tightly pressed together. He had hoped she would eventually get over her anger at Tadashi, no such luck it seemed. If anything, she seemed to hate him more than ever. At least now Fred knew about her hatred towards him. When she revealed her hatred for Tadashi in front of Fred, it had been like a huge weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. Though she showed her hostility towards him more, she no longer purposefully broke things around the house in order to ‘get him to work’. Tadashi hadn’t been surprised when Heathcliff told him she’d broken things on purpose, but poor Fred had been a mixture of horrified, heartbroken and furious. Fred would have gone to his father to get her fired if Tadashi hadn’t stepped in. 

Fred squeezed Tadashi’s hand as they passed by her, Fred pointedly ignoring her presence rather than greet her like he did every other worker. Part of Tadashi felt kind of bad, but another remembered the cruel words she’d hurled at him and how close Fred came to firing her that he found himself feeling less bad for Fred giving her the cold shoulder. Once they reached the game room, Fred raced over to throw a movie in while Tadashi and Hiro got settled on the sofa. Hiro got comfortable in Tadashi’s lap and Fred jumped down next to Tadashi, snuggling against Tadashi’s side and playing the movie. 

Tadashi tried to focus on the movie, but he found his mind drifting off, enjoying the feeling of having the two people he loved most in the world curled up against him. Tadashi found himself once again thinking about what it would be like to spend the rest of his life with them. Well maybe not so much Hiro, he would grow up, move out and hopefully start a family of his own, but definitely with Fred….

Someone knocked on the door, startling Tadashi out of his thoughts. 

“Come in!” Fred called, reluctantly sitting up. 

Heathcliff calmly strode in and informed them, “Master Fredrick, Mr. Hamada could you please follow me? Master Lee would like to speak with you both.” 

“About what?” Tadashi nervously asked. 

“Nothing to worry about,” Heathcliff assured. “Now please follow me.” 

“Stay here and keep watching okay buddy?” Tadashi asked, reluctantly pulling Hiro off of his lap. 

“Okay Dashi,” Hiro said. Tadashi stood up and followed Heathcliff through the mansion, Fred at his side. 

“Hey Heathcliff,” Fred said after a minute, “Why are we heading this way? This is towards my room…” 

“We’re heading the right way,” Heathcliff assured, stopping in front of one of the many family portraits that where in the house. 

“Um Heathcliff this is a picture…” Fred said, looking as confused as Tadashi felt. 

Heathcliff simply pushed the frame causing it to swing inward. 

“Wow…” Fred gasped, stepping inside entrance that was revealed. Concerned and slightly confused at the same time, Tadashi reluctantly followed, jumping when the picture slammed shut behind him. Tadashi turned his attention to the strange room he was in, super hero suits lined the walls and a large computer stood at the far end and Mr. Lee was sitting in a chair facing the computer. 

“Hello boys,” Mr. Lee calmly greeted. 

“What is this?” Tadashi asked, glancing over at Fred who looked like Christmas had come again. 

“Are you a superhero!” Fred exclaimed, bouncing in his spot. 

“Fred that’s ridiculous,” Tadashi said. “Super Hero’s aren’t-”

“No Tadashi, they are,” Mr. Lee interrupted. “And I am one.”


	2. Chapter 2

Fred let out an excited whoop and threw his arms around Mr. Lee saying, “This is so awesome!” 

Tadashi stated at the pair in confusion and mumbled, “No way…this is impossible! Their…this must be some kind of sick prank or something or-”

“I would never pull a prank like this!” Mr. Lee assured. “Pretending to be a superhero can put a lot of innocent people in danger!” 

“This is….insane!” Tadashi exclaimed. “You really expect me to just believe all of this?” 

“But Dashi you’re standing inside his lair!” Fred exclaimed. 

“Fred it’s okay,” Mr. Lee assured. “This is a lot to take in.” 

“I’m not sure if this is just a dream….” Tadashi admitted. Grinning, Fred reached over and pinched Tadashi’s arm. Tadashi yelped and yanked his arm away saying, “Ow!”

“See it hurt so you’re awake!” Fred declared. 

“Thank you for that,” Tadashi deadpanned. 

“You’re welcome!” Fred exclaimed, grinning. Tadashi rolled his eyes, fighting a smirk. 

“I think I have something I can show you that might help convince you,” Mr. Lee informed them. “Follow me!” Who then turned around and strode out of the secret room. Tadashi glanced over at Fred who shrugged and followed his father. Sighing, Tadashi followed him as well who started down towards the garage. 

“Why are we heading to the garage?” Tadashi asked as Mr. Lee opened the door for them. 

“I need to show you my car,” Mr. Lee said.

“Your car?” Tadashi asked. 

“Yes,” Mr. Lee said walking over to the car Tadashi had been spending months repairing. “You see, it’s supposed to be able to change its appearance, fly, use weapons-”

“Is this a super car?” Fred exclaimed, eyes lighting up with excitement. 

Mr. Lee smiled at his son and said, “Yes, it is.”

“This is so awesome!” Fred whispered, tightly gripping Tadashi’s arm and shaking it slightly. 

Tadashi smirked at Fred’s antics before focusing on Mr. Lee who was saying, “Though you managed to fix the body of the car…the other parts are still badly damaged.” Mr. Lee pulled out a remote and pressed a button causing the car to shutter and start to transform before making a loud clanging noise and stopping, smoke pouring out of the engine. 

“That does not look good…” Tadashi mumbled. “But…what do you want me to do?”

“And why did you say that the car wasn’t important to fix?” Fred added, scratching his head. 

“I have a second car,” Mr. Lee informed them. “I was hoping to get my usual guy to come and fix it.”

“That doesn’t explain what you want me to do…” Tadashi said. 

“Isn’t it obvious?” Mr. Lee asked. “I need you to fix it.” 

“Fix it!” Tadashi exclaimed. “I don’t even know how this works and you want me to fix it?” 

“You are a genius though!” Mr. Lee exclaimed. “You’ve built some impressive inventions and Robert Callaghan has called you one of his brightest students.”

“I’ve never done anything like this before!” Tadashi exclaimed. 

“I know you can figure it out!” Mr. Lee assured. 

“Aren’t their like super hero repair shops or something?” Tadashi asked. 

“Well…my usual guy has decided to retire and I can’t get into contact with anyone else…” Mr. Lee admitted. “And I see potential in you.” 

“Even if I agreed with that I have no idea where to even begin-” Tadashi began but Mr. Lee interrupted him.

“I was able to get the schematics for the car and my other weapons,” Mr. Lee offered. 

“You seriously want me to help you be a superhero?” Tadashi asked, dumbfounded. 

“No, no I want you to help repair things still,” Mr. Lee corrected. 

“Things you use while going out and being a super hero!” Tadashi exclaimed. 

“You wouldn’t be in any danger,” Mr. Lee assured. “How would anyone know you’re repairing things for me?” Mr. Lee did have a point, how would anyone track down a repair guy?

“This is…insane…” Tadashi finally said. 

“Do you need me to pinch you again?” Fred asked. 

“No thanks,” Tadashi deadpanned. 

“Tadashi, it would be a huge help if you’d be willing to help me with this,” Mr. Lee said. Tadashi looked between Mr. Lee and Fred who both had pleading looks on their faces. 

“All right, I’ll at least see what I can do about the car,” Tadashi said causing Mr. Lee to grin widely and Fred to start cheering. 

\-----

While Tadashi was working on the car Fred and his dad wandered back into the house. Fred was about to excuse himself to go check on Hiro when his dad said, 

“Fred, could we um talk for a little bit?” 

“Yea sure,” Fred said, sitting down. “What about?” 

“Somewhere uh, private,” His dad corrected. 

“Oh…right…” Fred mumbled, slightly embarrassed and jumped back to his feet. His dad led him through the mansion and surprisingly back into the secret lair. Once safely inside his dad said,

“Fred…I-I uh wanted to apologize to you.”

“For what?” Fred asked. His dad hadn’t done anything…well nothing that he knew about.

“For not telling you about all of this sooner,” Dad sighed. 

“Why are you sorry?” Fred asked, “I’ve read so many comic books about this I get it, you wanted to keep me safe and all that so you couldn’t tell me.”

Fred’s dad smile at him and said, “I’m happy to hear that son. I wasn’t sure how you’d take me being a super hero.”

“How could I take it any other way?” Fred asked. “I mean this is so cool! It’s like I’m in one of my comics!” His dad flashed a warm smile at him and said,

“I was worried you’d be angry at me for not telling you sooner,” his dad admitted. 

“I really do get it dad,” Fred assured. “Being a super hero is dangerous! Besides you needed to be sure I wasn’t working for your arch enemy or something.” His dad started laughing at Fred’s comment and said,

“Thank you for understanding.”

“Thanks for trusting me and Tadashi with this,” Fred replied. 

“Of course,” His dad said. Grinning Fred tightly hugged his dad, burying his face in his neck. His dad tightly hugged him back. Fred would have loved to stay with his father for the rest of the day talking about super hero stuff, but he remembered Hiro who was still alone and probably getting worried. 

“Dad I’d love to stay here and talk but I think I should go check on Hiro-” Fred began but his dad interrupted him saying,

“Fred it’s great that you want to help take care of Hiro, but at the end of the day isn’t Hiro Tadashi’s responsibility?” 

“No,” Fred said, shaking his head. “Well yes but no. I mean I love Tadashi so much and Hiro well…he’s become like a little brother to me. I love them both and want to help them whenever I can.” Fred’s dad smiled at Fred and said,

“All right…we can always talk later.” Fred started to leave but froze saying,

“Hey dad, why don’t you come with and officially meet Hiro?” 

His father stared at Fred for a moment, a strange expression on his face. After a minute he smiled and said, “That would be wonderful.” Fred beamed at his father and the pair wandered back over to the gaming room. 

Hiro turned towards the door when he heard it open saying, “Hi Fred! Where’s Dashi?” Fred sat down next to Hiro and told him,

“Sorry buddy Tadashi had to work on something for a little bit. While he’s gone though I wanted to introduce you to my dad…well officially.” Fred beckoned over his father who walked over and sat down on the other side of Hiro. 

“Hi Mr. Lee…” Hiro nervously said. 

“Call me grandpa,” his dad said, winking at Fred who started blushing like mad. 

Hiro who was completely oblivious to Fred’s discomfort said, “O-okay grandpa.” Fred’s dad grinned and ruffled Hiro’s hair affectionately and said,

“There you go!” It was a little strange, but sitting here with Hiro and his dad didn’t feel weird at all, in fact it felt almost natural. He could see himself spending every day with Hiro watching him while Tadashi was at school or work…

“Right Fred?” Hiro asked, startling Fred out of his thoughts. 

“Huh?” 

“That’s our Lego city and we’re rebuilding it bigger and better with super hero bases and everything to keep the Lego citizens safe from the monster brothers!” 

“Oh yea,” Fred agreed, grinning as Hiro explained to his dad about the poor cities story and how it needed super heroes to help protect it. Yea, he could see himself spending the rest of his life


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you wondering, Ezra's finally coming in :D

Though a part of Hiro was sad to be starting school again, another was excited to be going back. Sure the bullies where bad and he was usually bored out of his mind but during the school year he got to hang out with Ezra practically all day! It was especially nice going back to school since his brother had already started school again last week leaving Hiro to entertain himself for most of the day. 

“You excited to go back to school?” Tadashi asked as he drove Hiro. 

“Yep!” Hiro said, grinning. 

“You know, most kids dread going to school,” Tadashi teasingly said. 

“I get to see Ezra!” Hiro exclaimed, a wide grin on his face. 

“Buddy have you thought about maybe talking to some of the other kids?” Tadashi asked. 

Hiro glared at Tadashi and grumbled, “The other kids are mean!” 

“I know they are,” Tadashi sighed. “I just hoped maybe someone would be nice to you….”

“Yea, Ezra,” Hiro declared. Hiro didn’t understand why Tadashi was trying to get Hiro to make more friends; he had Ezra why did he need more friends? Tadashi sighed heavily but thankfully didn’t try and push the friend thing on him anymore. Hiro secretly hoped that by the end of the year he will have forgotten about wanting Hiro to skip a grade so he could stay with Ezra. The rest of the car ride was spent in silence and once they pulled up to the school Hiro said,

“Bye Dashi see you tonight!” 

“Love you Hiro! Remember Hera’s taking you home today!” Tadashi called out. 

“Okay!” Hiro said. “Love you too!” And raced inside. Thankfully Ezra was already in the classroom and Hiro raced over to sit next to him. Today though he would be good and would not distract Ezra. He knew Mrs. Mathews wanted to move him because he was bored and distracting Ezra so if he didn’t distract him, she wouldn’t move Hiro!

“Hi Hiro!” Ezra exclaimed. 

“Hi!” Hiro said. 

“Oh guess what! Uncle Zeb is coming over tonight!” Ezra exclaimed. 

“Really? Awesome!” Hiro exclaimed. Hiro had met Ezra’s uncle at Mr. Lee’s Christmas party and he was a lot of fun. He told great stories, was hilarious and was really nice to Hiro. Ezra grinned and said,

“Yea! It’ll be awesome!” Before Hiro could respond though Mrs. Mathews walked in and started class. Though Hiro knew he should try and focus, he was quickly lost interest and become bored. He knew all of this already! Hiro wanted to poke Ezra to get his attention, but he knew if he distracted Ezra they’d both get in trouble so he started pretending to do the work while he doodled. Very quickly though even that could not keep the toddlers attention. He wanted to get up and run around or build something, not sit here while Mrs. Mathews went on and on without ever saying anything. It was hard keeping himself entertained when the school work was so easy. 

As Hiro ran out of room to doodle he once again had to fight the urge to try and get Ezra’s attention. Hiro glanced over at his friend and saw that he was engrossed in his work, oblivious to Hiro’s boredom. How could he stay focused on such boring work for so long? Thankfully soon they’re released for recess and Hiro practically draged Ezra outside. 

“Freedom!” Hiro shouted once they were outside. 

“No it’s just recess,” Ezra corrected. Hiro groaned and collapsed onto the ground saying,

“My brain is going to melt from boredom!”

“I’m sorry,” Ezra said, plopping down next to him. “Maybe we can do something in class-”

“No!” Hiro groaned, freezing when he saw how hurt Ezra looked. “I mean I want to play all day but Mrs. Mathews will get mad if I keep distracting you in class.”

“But you’re bored and that’s not good either!” Ezra exclaimed. 

“It’s why everyone wants me to skip a grade…” Hiro sadly mumbled. 

“Isn’t that a good thing though?” Ezra asked. “You won’t be bored then!” 

“But then we won’t see each other all the time!” Hiro said. 

“Well yea but mom and dad always say that being apart makes you closer cuz you have more to talk about when you see each other again!” 

“Really?” Hiro asked.

“Yea! Well that’s what they said when Uncle Zeb had to leave,” Ezra explained. 

“So…you think I should skip a grade?” Hiro asked. 

“You’re bored now since you know everything and you will be less bored in a higher grade right?” Ezra said. 

“Yea but we won’t see each other!” Hiro cried. 

“We will after school!” Ezra assured. “Besides we can’t talk in class anyways!” 

“I guess…” Hiro reluctantly agreed. Maybe he needed to talk to Tadashi again; he’d have all the answers!

“Come on let’s play before the bell rings!” Ezra exclaimed. Grinning, Hiro raced after him.  
\----

The rest of the day dragged on much like the morning did, so Hiro was relieved when the bell finally rang at the end of the day. The pair raced out the doors relieved to be free for the day. Better yet, Ezra’s mom was already waiting for them when they got out. 

“Come on come on!” Ezra exclaimed, running to the car. “I wanna see Uncle Zeb!” 

“I’m coming!” Hiro said, racing after his friend. 

“Race you to the car!” Ezra shouted, running faster. 

“Hey no fair!” Hiro shouted, desperately trying to catch up. Erza threw himself at the car saying,

“I win!”

“That’s cuz you started first!” Hiro grumbled. Giggling, Ezra opened the door and clamored inside followed by Hiro. Once the boys where settled Hera asked,

“So how was your first day back?” Hera asked. 

“Cool! We learned lots of stuff!” Ezra exclaimed. “Well I did…”

“It was boring!” Hiro groaned. “I already knew the stuff but the teacher won’t let me go ahead!” 

“Sorry you’re bored kiddo,” Hera said. “But you still need to do your homework.”

“I know,” Hiro groaned. 

“Can’t we play with Uncle Zeb first?” Ezra asked, pouting. 

“Yea please!” Hiro added, flashing his best puppy dog eyes. 

Hera ponded it for about a minute before saying, “Oh all right, you two are good about doing your homework. Just don’t make me regret this!” 

“Yes ma’am!”

“Okay mom!” Hiro and Ezra said at the same time. 

“Jinx!” Hiro shouted. 

“You can only do that if it’s the same thing at the same time!” Ezra exclaimed.

“No it’s at the same time!” Hiro argued. 

“Same thing at same time!” Ezra corrected. Hera grinned at the two boys as they continued to argue for the rest of the trip, knowing that as soon as they got home the ‘fight’ would be forgotten. Seconds after Hera stopped the car Ezra had unbuckled and was racing to the front door. 

“Slow down sweetie!” Hera called, laughing. 

“But mom I want to see Uncle Zeb!” Ezra shouted. 

“Okay, okay,” Hera said, grinning at his enthusiasm. As Hera reached the front door, Chopper started barking at the door. “Down boy!” Hera snapped once the door was open. Before she could walk inside, Hiro and Ezra darted around her Ezra shouting,

“Uncle Zeb! Uncle Zeb!” The tall muscular man ran into the room and scooped Ezra into his arms saying,

“Hey kiddo! Good to see you!” Ezra started giggling and wrapped his arms around Uncle Zeb’s neck and tightly hugged him, letting out a content sigh. Uncle Zeb noticed Hiro as he shuffled into the room behind Hera and said,

“Hey good to see you too squirt.” Hiro awkwardly waved at him as his face morphed into an expression of horror. “Wait Hera did you adopt another shrimp?”

Hera laughed and said, “No, he’s just a friend of Ezra’s and I babysit him after school.”

“Ah okay good, good this place is way too crowded!...uh no offense kid,” Uncle Zeb said.

“It’s okay, I like staying with Fred and Dashi!” Hiro assured. Uncle Zeb grinned at him and set Ezra down asking,

“Okay kiddo’s who’s ready for my famous chocolate peanut butter shakes?” 

“Chocolate peanut butter shake?” Hiro asked. 

“Uh-huh, they’re awesome!” Ezra said, eyes lighting up in excitement, “Uncle Zeb can Hiro have one?” 

“Sure why not,” Uncle Zeb said, ruffling Hiro’s hair. “I like you.” 

“Thanks!” Hiro exclaimed, grinning. “How do you make them?” He added as they made their way into the kitchen.

“Ah-ah, no one can know!” Uncle Zeb said, “it’s a family secret!”

“But I am family!” Ezra said, pouting.

“Not till you’re older kiddo,” Uncle Zeb said, ruffling Ezra’s hair. 

“Promise!” 

“Promise,” Uncle Zeb assured. Ezra grinned and exclaimed,

“Yes!” 

“I hear chocolate peanut butter shake!” Sabine, Ezra’s sister, exclaimed, racing into the kitchen.

“You heard correctly!” Uncle Zeb assured. 

“Awesome! Dad come on Uncle Zeb’s making shakes!” Sabine exclaimed. 

“I don’t think so,” Kanan said, peaking into the kitchen.

“Love one little shake won’t kill you,” Hera said, smiling. 

“Yea come on dad!” Ezra agreed, grinning.

“Last chance,” Uncle Zeb said, waving the blender. 

“All right all right, count me in,” Kanan said, grinning.

“Awesome!” Ezra said. Uncle Zeb chuckled and got to work, carefully keeping what he was adding to the blender hidden.

“Hey mom…dad…do you think-” Sabine began but Hera cut her off,

“No dying your hair until you’re eighteen.”

“But mom,” Sabine groaned, running a hand through her blond hair, “blond is so boring!”

“No,” Hera firmly told her.

“Fine,” Sabine huffed. Initially Hiro had been surprised when Ezra said none of them where related, Sabine much like Hera and Kanan had tan skin, but instead of blue eyes like Kanan she had brown eyes. When Hiro mentioned that to Tadashi, Tadashi had said that similar skin didn’t mean they were related and different skin didn’t mean they weren’t related. Once Uncle Zeb had everything put in the blender he started it up and let it run for a minute before pouring out the drink into six cups. 

“All right everybody dig in!” Uncle Zeb declared. 

“These are the best Uncle Zeb!” Ezra exclaimed, excitedly grabbing a cup. “It tastes just like a Reese’s cup! No better!” 

“Reese’s cup?” Hiro asked. 

“Haven’t you ever had a Reese’s cup?” Ezra asked. 

“No….mom and dad said I shouldn’t eat sweets…” Hiro mumbled, staring down at the table. Sensing Hiro’s distress, Hera said,

“Well, you’re in my house right now so I say dig in!” Hiro flashed Hera a warm smile and took a large spoonful and excitedly stuffed it in his mouth. A wave of new flavors bombarded Hiro’s tongue and they were all wonderful. It was sweet and cold but so smooth and though he couldn’t identify all of the flavors, they were all amazing. As Hiro swallowed his throat started burning a little but thinking it was part of the experience excitedly took another bite. 

“How you like it kiddo?” Uncle Zeb asked. 

“Yummy!” Hiro said through his second mouthful. As he swallowed though Hiro found he was having some trouble breathing. Was this why mommy and daddy said he shouldn’t eat sweets? 

“Umm guys? Something’s up with Hiro…” Sabine said, eyeing Hiro worriedly. 

“Hiro are you alright?” Kanan asked. Hiro tried to answer, but he could barely breathe. 

Hera looked over at Hiro and gasped, “I think he’s having a reaction!” 

“Come on we need to get you to the hospital!” Kanan exclaimed, scooping Hiro up.


	4. Chapter 4

Hiro hated hospitals, hospitals where were people went when they were dying. It’s where he found out he didn’t have parents anymore. Bad things happened in hospitals and he hated that he had to spend so much time in them these days. The worst part though was that he was alone in a place filled with terrifying memories. He just wanted Dashi with him…

Someone knocked on the door making Hiro jump but it was only Ezra and his family who walked in. Hera sat down on the bed by Hiro and asked, “Hey Hiro. How are you feeling?” 

“Tired…” Hiro mumbled. Ezra carefully pulled himself up onto the bed and hugged Hiro saying,

“I’m sorry you got sick…”

Hiro shut his eyes and leaned against Ezra saying, “Not your fault…”

“You brother will be here soon,” Hera assured, lightly ruffling Hiro’s hair. 

“Yea no offense kid but I’m never making food for you again,” Uncle Zed declared causing Hiro to tiredly laugh. 

“No more feeding food that makes Hiro sick!” Ezra said, glaring at Uncle Zeb who threw up his hands saying,

“Hey I didn’t do it on purpose!” 

“We don’t know what made Hiro sick sweetie,” Hera said. 

“Once the doctors find out though we all need to be careful about giving him food with whatever it was in it,” Kanan added. 

“How would the doctors find out?” Ezra asked. 

“They took some tests which will help the doctors figure it out,” Kanan explained. “They’ll figure out what Hiro’s allergic to soon.” 

“That’s good,” Ezra said. Hiro heard shouting coming from the hall that got closer and closer into it was outside his door. The door flew open and Tadashi ran in saying,

“Hiro I’m so sorry I couldn’t get here sooner! Are you feeling okay?” Hera immediately stood up followed reluctantly by Ezra. 

“Yea,” Hiro assured, smiling at his brother. “I’m just tired.” 

“The doctor said he’ll be released tomorrow,” Hera informed him. “And as soon as they figure out what caused the reaction they’ll let you know.” 

“Thank you,” Tadashi said. 

“Mom, dad can we please stay with Hiro?” Ezra asked, clasping his hands together and looking up at his parents with wide eyes. 

“Sweetie it depends on if Tadashi and Hiro are okay with that,” Hera said, glancing over at Kanan. 

“Yea kiddo I don’t think Hiro’s going to be really up to doing much right now,” Kanan agreed as Bubbles walked in. 

“Mr. Bubbles,” Tadashi greeted, getting to his feet. “What are you doing here?” 

“I’m still Hiro’s social worker and he was just hospitalized. I’m here to figure out why and if there is a problem,” Bubbles explained. “Care to explain?” 

“Of course but uh can we do this outside? I think it would be good for Hiro to get some rest,” Tadashi asked. 

“Of course,” Bubbles agreed. 

“Okay um Ezra if you’d like to keep Hiro company that’s fine by me,” Tadashi informed him.

“Sweetie why don’t you stay in here while dad and I go out with Mr. Bubbles?” Hera said. Bubbles raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

“Okay,” Ezra said climbing back up onto the bed. Hera flashed him a smile before walking out with Tadashi and Bubbles. Zeb and Sabine started whispering to each other and Hiro tiredly mumbled,

“Please don’t be mad at Zeb.”

“I’m not,” Ezra assured. “Well I was but I know he didn’t want to make you go to the hospital.”

“Good,” Hiro mumbled, yawning. Why was he so tired? Ezra curled up next to Hiro who was struggling to keep his eyes open. “You’ll stay right?” 

“I will,” Ezra assured. Smiling, Hiro let himself drift off to sleep.

\-----

After a long and frustrating talk with Bubbles, they were finally allowed to go back to Hiro’s room. Thankfully, Bubbles assured them they weren’t going to take Hiro away but since he did go to the hospital he needed to come and make sure everything was okay. When Tadashi entered the room, he started grinning when he saw both Hiro and Ezra fast asleep on the hospital bed, curled up against each other. 

“I never though their first sleepover would be in a hospital,” Hera whispered, chuckling. 

“It’s…different,” Kanan agreed, a small smile on his face. Tadashi smiled at the two sleeping boys as the doctor stepped inside asking,

“Are you Hiro’s father?” Tadashi winced slightly and corrected,

“No I’m his guardian.” 

“Ah well we ran some tests and we found that he is allergic to peanuts.” 

“Peanuts?” Tadashi asked. 

“Yes, I would recommend keeping him away from any nuts,” The doctor added. 

“Cross contamination yea…” Tadashi agreed. 

“We’ll be keeping him here overnight for observation but he can head home tomorrow,” The doctor added. 

“Of course,” Tadashi agreed. “Thank you.” The doctor nodded and slipped out of the room leaving the others behind. 

“We’d best get Ezra home and in bed…” Hera whispered. Kanan nodded in agreement and reluctantly pulled Ezra away causing him to wake up and mumble,

“Dad?”

“Yea buddy, we’re heading home,” Kanan said.

“Is Hiro going home?” Ezra asked, rubbing his eyes.

“No kiddo he needs to stay here overnight,” Kanan said. 

“Can I stay here with him?” Ezra sleepily asked. 

“I’m sorry buddy but you need to get a good night’s sleep for school tomorrow,” Kanan said. 

“Will Hiro be their?”

“Probably not,” Kanan admitted. 

“I don’t need to go then!” Ezra exclaimed. 

“Listen buddy…” Kanan sighed but Ezra whispered,

“Please dad? I want to stay with Hiro and make sure he’s better!”

“May I?” Tadashi asked Kanan who nodded, looking confused. “I promise I will take good care of Hiro, but I know he’d want you to go to class so you don’t fall behind.”

“But Hiro will fall behind to,” Ezra argued. 

“He’ll catch up, I promise you, with no problem,” Tadashi assured. “How about this? I promise that if you go to school tomorrow I’ll bring Hiro over after school if he’s feeling up to it and your parents are okay with it of course.”

“That’s a wonderful idea,” Hera agreed. 

“Do we have a deal?” Tadashi asked.

Ezra frowned before nodding and saying, “Okay…take care of Hiro okay?” Tadashi smiled and said,

“Of course.”

\-------

Once Ezra and his family left, Tadashi realized he should probably call Fred and tell him what was happening. Fred picked up on the second ring and asked, 

“Hey is everything okay? You kind of ran out-”

“Hiro had an allergic reaction and is in the hospital.” 

“What?” Fred asked.

“He’s apparently allergic to peanuts.” Tadashi continued. “He had a chocolate peanut butter shake while at Ezra’s and had a reaction. He’ll be fine but he’s staying in the hospital overnight, I just wanted to call you so you wouldn’t get worried.” 

“Thanks,” Fred said. “Do you want me to come to the hospital?” Tadashi wanted to say yes, the company would be nice and he liked having Fred around but stopped himself. Hospitals where not very comfortable and he knew he wouldn’t be sleeping so most likely Fred wouldn’t get any sleep and he didn’t want to do that to him. 

“N-no, thanks though,” Tadashi said.

“You sure? I really don’t mind,” Fred assured. 

“I know,” Tadashi said, “I just…I don’t think I’ll be sleeping much and I really would feel bad keeping you up as well.” 

“I’m coming,” Fred suddenly declared.

“Wait Fred do-” Tadashi began.

“Too late!” Fred said before hanging up. Tadashi tried calling him back, but Fred ignored his call. Tadashi groaned in frustration and set his phone on the nightstand. 

“Dashi? What’s wrong?” Hiro sleepily asked. 

“Nothing buddy, go back to sleep,” Tadashi assured, running a hand through Hiro’s hair. 

“You sounded upset…” Hiro mumbled. 

“I’m not,” Tadashi said. He wasn’t exactly upset with Fred, more frustrated with how stubborn he was being. “Fred’s coming.”

“Is that bad?” Hiro asked. 

“No, of course not,” Tadashi assured. “It’s just uh….he’s not a big fan of hospitals so I didn’t think he’d want to come.” 

“Why’s he coming?” Hiro asked. 

“He wanted to see you of course,” Tadashi said without thinking. Maybe Fred came mostly for moral support for Tadashi, but he hoped also to make sure Hiro was okay.

“Really?” Hiro asked. 

“Yea, he really likes you,” Tadashi assured. 

“He does?” Hiro asked, eyes lighting up.

“Yea, most definitely,” Tadashi assured. Hiro’s face light up in excitement and he knew he’d said the right thing.

\------

About thirty minutes after the phone call with Fred, he waltzed into the hospital room asking,

“How’s my favorite little man?”

“Okay,” Hiro said. 

“Just okay?” Fred asked. When Hiro nodded Fred declared, “Well I’m going to fix that!” Without warning Fred started to mercilessly tickle Hiro. Hiro tried not to laugh but after about thirty seconds of tickling burst into excited giggling. “The tickle monster will keep tickling you until the sadness goes away!” Fred said in his ‘monster voice.’

“I’m happy I’m happy!” Hiro shrieked. 

Fred paused for a moment before declaring in his monster voice, “I don’t believe you!” and continued his merciless ‘attack’. 

“Fred you should probably stop,” Tadashi warned after another minute of tickling. 

“Aww…” Fred said, overdramatically pouting and hanging his head. Hiro settled down, still giggling like mad. Tadashi reached over and started running a calming hand through Hiro’s hair hoping to get him to relax some. Soon Hiro’s giggles subsided and he started nuzzling into Tadashi’s hand, his eyes drifting shut. Once Hiro’s breathing evened out Tadashi glanced up at Fred who had a frown on his face. 

“So umm I’m kind of stuck here until you leave,” Fred informed him. 

“How come?” Tadashi asked. 

“As Heathcliff was dropping me off he told me there was a um emergency with my dad and he had to leave immediately. I think it might have something to do with uh…the thing he told us about the other day.” Super Hero emergency? What did that mean?

“Is he okay?” Tadashi asked.

“Heathcliff wouldn’t say,” Fred sighed. “But umm….we may have to cancel our date tomorrow…”

“Fred don’t even worry about it,” Tadashi assured. “I just hope your dad is okay.”

“…me too…”

\---------  
Ezra hated going to class without Hiro. He had no one to play with at recess and at lunch the kids where brutal.

“Did the police take the freak away?” One kid taunted. Ezra tried to ignore them, but it was really hard to. 

“If you get on your hands and knees and beg for forgiveness for ever talking to that freak we might let you sit with us!” Another kid said. 

“Hiro’s my friend!” Ezra stubbornly said. 

“It can’t have friends!” the first kid declared. Ezra wanted to go over and punch those kids for saying mean things about Hiro, but he knew mom and dad would be really disappointed if he did that. So instead he finished his lunch quickly and hurried inside his classroom. 

“Ezra? What are you doing in here?” Mrs. Mathews asked. “Lunch doesn’t end for another fifteen minutes!”

“The other kids are mean,” Ezra grumbled, folding his arms across his desk and resting his head on them. 

“What do you mean?” Mrs. Mathews asked. 

“They keep calling Hiro a freak and saying the police took him away for being a freak,” Ezra miserably said. “But it’s not true! Hiro’s in the hospital! And he’s not a freak!” 

“No he’s not,” Mrs. Mathews assured, sitting on top of the desk next to Ezra’s and placing a hand on his back. “They just don’t understand because he’s different than them an-”

Ezra jerked out from Mrs. Mathews touch and snapped, “There’s nothing wrong with Hiro!” 

“No their isn’t-” She began but Ezra snapped,

“You said he was different!”

“He is-”

“Why does everyone hate him!” Ezra snapped, fighting tears.

“I don’t hate him-” Mrs. Mathews protested. 

“You’re taking him away!” Ezra snapped and stormed out. Ezra found a quiet corner to hide in and desperately wiped away the tears that spilled over. Ezra hated all his classmates and teacher; they were mean to Hiro for no reason other than he was smarter than everyone else. Because of that they were going to separate them! Ezra kept trying to tell Hiro and himself he was okay with Hiro skipping a grade, but he was terrified of being left alone without a friend and trapped with these horrible kids. Ezra wrapped his arms around himself and started rocking slightly, wishing he was smarter so he could stay with his friend….Then it hit Ezra, if he worked really, really hard and got perfect scores like Hiro he could skip a grade to and still be together!

The bell rang for everyone to head back to class and Ezra stood up, a determined look on his face. He would prove he’s just as smart as Hiro and stay with his best friend! He would!

\----

The rest of the day passed by agonizingly slow for Ezra, he wanted to get home so he could hopefully see Hiro and get to work studying and making himself smart just like Hiro! Ezra diligently took notes on everything Mrs. Mathews said and slowly worked on each problem so that they’d all be right the first time. It was painfully slow going, but when Mrs. Mathews looked over at his work, she happily told him he got them all correct. 

“Ezra…” She whispered, “I’m sorry for upsetting you earlier.” He didn’t forgive her for what she’d said, but mom and dad said that when someone apologized you should forgive them. How could he forgive her though? 

“It’s okay,” Ezra finally said, thinking she wouldn’t be happy if he said anything else. Mrs. Mathews smiled and squeezed his shoulder before returning to the front. Once the day finally ended Ezra grudgingly picked up Hiro’s homework as well and hurried outside to meet his mom who was waiting for him. 

“Come on come on let’s go!” Ezra exclaimed once he was in the car. 

“Someone’s in a hurry,” She commented, laughing. 

“I want to see Hiro!” Ezra declared. 

“Really? I couldn’t tell,” She said, laughing. Ezra huffed in annoyance as they drove off, impatiently staring out the window. Unfortunately though, Hiro wasn’t their when he got home. 

“Is Hiro out of the hospital?” Ezra asked, worried. 

“Yes sweetie,” His mom assured. “I texted Tadashi and they’ll be here soon.”

“Yes!” Ezra shouted, racing to the kitchen to start his homework. The wait seemed to stretch on forever, so when the doorbell finally rang Ezra raced over to it and got their just as his mom opened the door to reveal Hiro and Tadashi.

“Hiro!” Ezra shouted, excitedly hugging Hiro who hugged him back just as excitedly. “School was horrible!” 

“What happened?” Hiro asked. 

“Everything! Come on I’ll tell you while we work on homework!”

“Hiro hold on a second we really should just grab your homework and head home,” Tadashi said.

“Why? For your date?” Hiro asked. 

“No we had to cancel,” Tadashi said. 

“Date?” His mom asked. 

“Fred wanted to take me out but something came up with our babysitter so we can’t-” Tadashi explained. 

“If you need a sitter I can watch the little tyke,” Uncle Zeb offered. “I’m already watching Sabine and Ezra while Kanan and Hera go out.”

“I really don’t want to impose-” Tadashi said, shaking his hands. 

“It’s nothing really,” Uncle Zeb assured. “And I feel kind of bad for sending your brother to the hospital.”

“That’s not your-” Tadashi began but Hiro begged,

“Oh come on Dashi! Can’t I stay?” 

“Yea please!” Ezra agreed, the pair running up and pouting.

“Okay that’s not fair!” Tadashi groaned. Hiro and Ezra continued to pout as Uncle Zeb assured, 

“I really don’t mind. Go have fun or whatever.”

Tadashi groaned and said, “All right all right you can stay. I have no idea when we’ll be back though.”

“Eh Hera and Kanan will probably be out late,” Uncle Zeb said, shrugging. 

“Okay then...be good Hiro and get your homework done,” Tadashi said before slipping out the door. 

“Yes!” Ezra shouted. “Come on come on!” He added, dragging Hiro to the kitchen so he could tell him his brilliant plan.


	5. Chapter 5

“Do you think I can do it?” Ezra sheepishly asked after explaining his plan. “I’m not as smart as you but do you think you can help me get smart enough so we can stay in the same grade?” 

“I will make you smart!” Hiro declared. 

“What are you two doing in here?” Uncle Zeb asked. 

“I’m going to make Ezra even smarter so we can stay in the same grade!” Hiro exclaimed. 

“Uh kid it doe-ow what was that for?” Uncle Zeb grumbled, glaring at Hera as she walked into the kitchen. 

“That sounds like a wonderful idea,” Hera said, ignoring Uncle Zeb. “Now behave you two.”

“Yes mom!” Ezra said. 

“Okay!” Hiro agreed. Hera kissed Ezra’s cheek and added, “Zeb no giving Hiro any food you made.”

“Hey! That’s not fair!” Uncle Zeb shouted. “It was just one time!”

“Out of how many times you’ve given him food?” Kanan playfully asked, strolling into the kitchen. 

“I didn’t know he’d react like that!” Uncle Zeb shouted. 

“We’re teasing,” Hera assured. 

“Now I’m not making anything!” Uncle Zeb huffed. 

“Fine order pizza or something,” Hera said. 

“Cool pizza!” Ezra exclaimed. “Can we get stuffed crust?” 

“This did not go how I expected,” Uncle Zeb grumbled as Hera and Kanan started laughing. 

“I don’t care what you do as long as the house is fully intact when we get back,” Hera said. 

“Well that takes away all the fun,” Uncle Zeb wined. 

“Hey it’s our job to be killjoys,” Kanan informed him. 

“No kidding,” Uncle Zeb grumbled. 

“Be good,” Kanan said before turning to Hera holding his arm out, “Shall we?”

“Yes,” Hera said, linking his arm with his. 

\-----

“It’s been too long since we’ve done this love,” Hera said as they waited for their table to be ready. 

“I agree,” Kanan said. “I mean I love the kids but it is nice just having time for the two of us.”

“Do you think they’ll be alright?” Hera asked.

“Zeb’s with them,” Kanan said. 

“That’s what I’m worried about,” Hera informed him. Kanan chuckled and heard his phone start to ring. Frustrated, Kanan pulled it out and saw that it was Nick, a fellow police officer.

“Nope, tonight is my night off,” Kanan said, setting his phone to vibrate and stuffing it in his pocket. 

“Love if you need to get that-” Hera said but Kanan said,

“No I was guaranteed the night off so I am going to enjoy it.” Kanan frowned when he felt his phone start to vibrate again in his pocket. 

“It might be important,” Hera said. 

“What could be so important that they need me instead of the many other officers on call tonight?” Kanan asked. As soon as his phone stopped vibrating, it went off a third time. 

“Love I promise it’s okay,” Hera assured. Kanan growled and whipped out his phone saying,

“What is so damn impo-”

“Kanan you need to go home now!” Nick shouted. In the background Kanan heard sirens and shouting. 

“Why? Where are you?” Kanan asked, confused. 

“At your house!” Nick exclaimed. “There was a break in! Get over here!” 

“What!” Kanan shouted, horrified. 

“Kanan what’s wrong?” Hera asked, looking concerned. 

“I’m heading over,” Kanan said and hung up the phone. “The house was broken into; we need to leave, now.” Hera nodded and their pair stood and raced out of the restaurant. Kanan knew he probably shouldn’t be speeding, but he really couldn’t bring himself to care. His kids where potentially seriously hurt or worse. Hera for once wasn’t complaining and he knew even if he got pulled over no officer would give him a ticket. They arrived home in record time to find several police cars and an ambulance. To his horror he saw Zeb and Sabine both unconscious being loaded into an ambulance. 

“Go with them I’ll stay here and figure out what happened to the boys,” Kanan informed Hera who nodded and ran over to one of the ambulances. Kanan spotted Nick and ran over saying,

“Nick what’s going on?” 

“Good you’re here. I need descriptions of your two younger sons.” 

“Two? No I only have one Ezra, Hiro’s just a friend, why do you ne-” Kanan began, freezing when the implications of what he was saying set in. 

“We’re trying to get an AMBER alert out-”

“How do you know they were kidnapped?” Kanan demanded. 

“The person who called in reported seeing two young boys being forced into a car,” Nick said, looking nervous. “We need descriptions of those kids so we can send an alert out.” Wordlessly Kanan whipped out his phone and called Hera who thankfully picked up.

“Have you heard about the boys?”

“I need you to call Tadashi and tell him to come to our house. The boys were taken,” Kanan informed her, forcing himself to remain calm. He knew he came across harshly, but there wasn’t time to comfort right now. Every second they waited was another second the boys were missing and the longer they were missing…Kanan forced himself not to think about that. He could not let emotions cloud his judgement. He’d handled dozens of child abduction cases before this one with no problem. He could do this. 

“Taken?” Hera gasped. 

“Just do it, we don’t have time to wait,” Kanan snapped before hanging up. He felt bad for acting harshly but he wouldn’t be able to focus on saving them if he thought about the fact that this was his child missing. He had to treat this like any other missing child case, distance himself emotionally from what was happening. If he didn’t he would crack. 

\----

It took three hours for them to get an AMBER alert sent out for both the boys, but it felt like so much longer to Kanan. He knew that was remarkably quick, three hours was the quickest these alerts could get out. If he’d been talking to a parents he’d tell them how good it is how quickly it got out. Being the anxious parent though completely changed his perspective on that. He wanted to scream in frustration at how slowly it was but restrained himself, barely. 

Tadashi though was an entirely different story. When he arrived he stormed over to Kanan and demanded to know what happened before dissolving into half shouting at him and other officers in Japanese while Fred frantically tried to calm him down. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know what Tadashi was saying, but he imagined it was him blaming Kanan for what happened and Kanan felt like he entirely deserved it. 

Once Fred managed to calm him down he quickly was able to give the officers the rest of the information and Kanan managed to dig out one of the many photos of Ezra and Hiro together. Once they had all the information they needed from him, Tadashi collapsed onto the sofa and completely broke down. Kanan wished he could do the same. Shortly after the alert was sent out Hera finally got into contact with him. 

“They’re both stable…” She whispered her voice cracking. Kanan knew she’d probably been crying in the hospital all by herself uncertain as to the fate of any of her kids. He desperately wished he could teleport to her side and comfort her like a good husband should, but he also felt like he needed to be here helping search for Ezra. He felt painfully torn between the two and was helpless in trying to figure out where to go. 

If this where any other case, he’d be immensely pleased with the progress made, they had an eye witness already and where questioning them, they were able to get enough information for an AMBER alert and where working on missing children fliers. Better yet, they were even working on potential leads. He should be pleased, this was good progress. But he wasn’t, he was infuriated with how slow everyone was being. He wanted his son back now. He needed to know Ezra was safe and alright. The worst part of being an officer was knowing the odds. He would watch the time tick by and know exactly the chances of finding his son alive and it was agonizing. 

“Kanan?” Tadashi asked, startling Kanan out of his thoughts. He knew he should feel guilty, he’d hardly been thinking about Hiro this entire time, but it was hard to bring himself to. “I wanted to….no need to apologize. I-I know you probably have no idea what I was saying half the time but…it was wrong. You’re doing everything you can to help find my brother and I should appreciate that….especially since your son is out there too…” 

Kanan slowly looked over Tadashi, he looked…shattered. His eyes where bloodshot and his voice cracked as he spoke and his hair was a mess, as if someone had been constantly running their hands through it. He looked like Hiro had been missing for days instead of hours. To both of them it probably felt like days already. 

“If I got the gist of what you were saying, you’re right. It’s my fault the boys got taken…” Kanan said. 

“You weren’t even here though,” Tadashi argued. 

“But I should have been,” Kanan said.

“You couldn’t have known something like this would happen,” Tadashi argued. 

“I’m an officer,” Kanan said. 

“So? You can’t live your life waiting for something bad to happen,” Tadashi said. 

“I should have done more,” Kanan growled. He shouldn’t have ignored Nick’s calls for so long. Should have ensured his family was better taken care of, should have-

“After the crash, I thought the same thing,” Tadashi admitted. “I was sure it was my fault they died. They were driving to my showcase after all. I kept telling myself if I had been at home with them they wouldn’t have left late and driven so recklessly or not even have told them about it so they wouldn’t have been on the road. I guess what I’m trying to say is agonizing over all the what ifs doesn’t change anything. And just because you did something that might have contributed to this happening doesn’t make you guilty. You did nothing wrong. It was someone else who did this and you’re working to find them.” 

Kanan couldn’t help but wonder if this kid was only twenty like he swore he was. He was too wise for his age. Then the morbid realization hit him that this kid has probably dealt with things adults haven’t had to. 

“I need to head home,” Tadashi informed him. “But I wanted to tell you that before I left.” And before Kanan could formulate a response he was gone and Nick was telling him,

“Listen Kanan, we’ve got this. Right now you need to be with your wife.” Kanan wanted to tell him no he couldn’t leave he was needed here. But on the other he knew he might lose his mind if he didn’t at least go and see how she was holding up in person. She needed him too, and right now no one was there for her. 

“You’re right…” Kanan finally sighed. “Let me know the second you get any information.”

“Will do,” Nick assured. Kanan knew Nick would keep his promise. With that thought firmly in mind, Kanan left to head to the hospital and comfort his wife. 

\-----

The thing Wasabi loved about being at home was the peace and quiet. Though he loved the nerd gang as Fred put it, the lab was never quiet. Getting to relax at home with no worries was fantastic. That is, until his phone started making a noise he didn’t think a phone should ever make. Thinking something was seriously wrong with it, he picked it up only to find the screen flashing with a message saying,

AMBER ALERT

2 BOYS KIDNAPPED ON SEPTEMBER 28th AT 8:30PM HIRO HAMADA AND

Wasabi froze when he saw the first name, not even thinking to look at the other name. Hiro was abducted? What happened? Was Tadashi okay? Terrified for his friend Wasabi frantically called Tadashi’s phone, letting out a groan when it went to voice mail. What if Tadashi was in the hospital? What if he was taken too? A million questions raced through Wasabi’s mind as he, with shaking hands, dialed Fred’s number. 

Thankfully Fred picked up after the second ring, “Hello?”

“Fred I just got an Amber Alert about Hiro, what happened? Is Tadashi okay?”

“Yea he’s fine,” Fred assured. “Hiro was at his friend’s house when he got nabbed.”

“Oh man…” Wasabi said. “How’s Tadashi holding up?”

“Not good,” Fred admitted. “We’re heading back to my house now.” 

“Do you think he’d want me to come over?” Wasabi asked. Fred was silent on the other end for a minute before saying,

“I don’t think so…” 

“All right just….tell him if he needs anything and I mean anything just call.”

“Yea I will.”

“I mean it,” Wasabi said. “No matter how late or how stupid he thinks it is.” 

“Thanks Wasabi.”

“Anything for my friends,” Wasabi said, meaning it with every fiber of his being.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eh not sure still how I feel about this chapter... let me know what you guys think though!!!

Hiro was terrified; he had no idea where they were being taken or why they were taken. All he knew was that the men who took them hurt Ezra’s family before stuffing them into the van and have been driving for hours. Eventually they came to a stop am the men threw open the back doors and roughly dragged them to their feet. They were at some sort of warehouse that looked run down and abandoned. They were brought inside and the men said, 

“It’s done boss! We got them!” 

“Them?” A different man asked, stepping out of the shadows. He was very thin and was so pale his wrinkled skin almost looked white. “I only wanted him.” He said, point at Ezra. “Why did you bring two?” 

“This is the really smart one you mentioned,” the man holding Hiro said. 

“Is he?” The third man asked. 

“Yea, they were together!” The man holding Ezra assured. The man leaned over and leered in Hiro’s face saying,

“Well then he will prove very useful as well…” The third man said. Hiro shivered and tried to move away from him, terrified. What did he want? Suddenly a terrifying loud beeping filled the room startling even the man leering at Hiro. “What was that.” 

“I think it was my pho-” The first man began when the beeping filled the room again. Nervously the first man pulled out his phone, freezing when he saw what was one it. 

“What?” The third man growled. 

“Nothing imp-” the first man began but the third snatched the phone away and stared at it before roaring,

“You were seen!” 

“We shot them!” the second man exclaimed. 

“Obviously not,” the third man growled before shooting both the men, their bodies crumbling to the ground unmoving. Hiro let out a terrified whimper and moved closer to Ezra, the two boys then clung onto each other, staring at their captor in horror. 

“Now, let’s see if you have the gift…”

\-----

Once Tadashi left Hera’s house he furiously drove back to Fred’s house, Fred thankfully was silent the drive home and once they reached the mansion Tadashi threw himself out of the car and raced through the mansion to Mr. Lee’s secret lair, praying he was here. Tadashi didn’t care if Fred followed, Mr. Lee might be his best chance of finding Hiro. Tadashi stumbled through the hidden door and thankfully found Mr. Lee sitting in his chair looking extremely worn out.

“Mr. Lee! Thank God you’re here!” Tadashi gasped. 

“What is it boy?” Mr. Lee asked, tiredly looking up at Tadashi. 

“Hiro’s been kidnapped!” Tadashi gasped. 

“Kidnapped?” Mr. Lee asked in disbelief. 

“Yes!”

“When did this happen?” Mr. Lee asked. 

“He was over at his friend Ezra’s house,” Tadashi explained. “And as I was leaving I got a frantic call from Ezra’s mom saying they were both taken!” 

“Did you say Ezra?” Mr. Lee asked, eyes wide. 

“Y-yes he and Hiro where taken!” Tadashi shouted. “I need you to help me figure out who took them a-”

"Jarrus?" Mr. Lee asked, eyes wide in horror. 

"Yes....Mr. Lee what's going on?" Tadashi asked. 

“I should have seen this coming…” Mr. Lee interrupted. 

“What?” Tadashi asked. 

“All those attacks where a distraction!” Mr. Lee continued. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it!”

“Mr. Lee what are you talking about?” Tadashi asked. 

“I know who took them,” Mr. Lee declared. 

“How?” Tadashi asked. Mr. Lee sighed and began,

“Well…it’s a long story but….the man calls himself the Inquisitor and he hunts superhero’s.”

“A super hero hunter?” Tadashi asked, confused. “Why would someone like that be after Ezra?”

“Because his mother was a super hero,” Mr. Lee explained. 

“Wait how do you know that?” Tadashi asked. “He was a baby when they found him at that orphanage!” 

“I know because I was the one who brought him to the orphanage,” Mr. Lee explained. 

“You brought him their?” Tadashi asked, mind reeling. 

“It’s a long story why don’t…we get his adoptive parents here?”

“Whoa wait won’t that kind of reveal you’re a super hero?” Tadashi asked. 

“Yes but…if the Inquisitor found Ezra other’s villains will and for his safety they need to know,” Mr. Lee sighed. “Please contact them and have them come here.” 

\-----

Tadashi anxiously paced the lair impatiently waiting for Kanan and Hera to arrive. While a part of him felt horrible for dragging them away from their kids while they were in the hospital, another realized they needed to understand what was going on. 

After a painfully long time Kanan and Hera where led into the lair by Heathcliff. Kanan made a beeline for Mr. Lee and demanded,

“What do you know about our son?” Glaring at Mr. Lee. 

“It’s…a long story,” Mr. Lee said. “It might be best if you sat down.” 

“How do w-” Kanan began but Hera cut him off by placing a hand on his shoulder. 

“We don’t have any other lead’s love,” She whispered. Kanan sighed in defeat and heavily sat down followed by Tadashi, Fred and Hera. 

“Where to begin…” Mr. Lee mumbled. 

“The beginning?” Kanan dryly said. 

Instead of being offended, Mr. Lee laughed, “Yes but which beginning?” 

“Which?” Tadashi asked. 

“I guess I should start with explaining Ezra’s parents,” Mr. Lee decided. “Ezra’s parents where Mira and Ephraim Bridger. His mother Mira well…she was special what people call an inhuman. She had special abilities and was what many people called a super hero.” 

“A super hero?” Kanan asked, looking like he wasn’t believing a word he was hearing. 

“Yes,” Mr. Lee continued, unfazed. “She was for many years until she was badly injured and decided to retire…well that wasn’t the only reason…”

“What was the other?” Hera asked.

“She met Ephraim,” Mr. Lee said. “She loved him and wanted to settle down and start a family. Live a normal life so she did and they got married. Soon after she found out she was pregnant with Ezra.”

“How did he wind up with you?” Kanan interjected. 

“Around that time she also discovered a man who called himself the Inquisitor was after her. The Inquisitor is hunts down people with special abilities and kills them. So to protect her child she and her husband went into deep hiding so he wouldn’t find out about her child and after he was born she contacted me to take him somewhere where he would be safe.”

“So you dumped him at the orphanage?” Kanan asked. 

“Well, not quiet,” Mr. Lee corrected. “I did some testing to see if Ezra had the genes.” 

“The genes?” Hera asked. 

“Just like any other trait, powers are usually tied to specific genes. I can’t be certain but from what I can tell, special abilities seem to be a recessive gene. Of course my study of special abilities is far from complete…”

“Anyways,” Kanan prompted. 

“Ah yes first I tested Ezra as best I could to see if he could potentially gain any special abilities. Thankfully I didn’t find anything so I delivered him to an orphanage and planned to find the Bridgers but…it was too late. The Inquisitor had already found them…”

“He killed them?” Hera asked, looking devastated. 

“Yes…” Mr. Lee sighed, a far off look in his eyes. “Their plan was a success though, as far as any of us knew the Inquisitor knew nothing about Ezra’s existence…”

“Wait you really expect us to just believe all of this?” Kanan demanded. 

“What if I told you it was true?” A voice Tadashi had never heard before say. Tadashi jumped slightly and turned to face the woman. She had dark skin and short black hair and wore a pair of glasses. 

“Mildred?” Kanan asked. “You’re in on this sick joke?” 

“Kanan I assure you this is not a joke. I’ve work in that orphanage for years keeping an eye out for children who showed signs of being special.” Mildred explained. “Kanan I swear I would never joke about something like this, especially given what’s happened.” Kanan and Hera both stared at her uncertainly. 

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Hera asked. 

“Because we all thought it would keep him safer if fewer people knew the truth, especially if he doesn’t have any powers like I believe he does not.” Mr. Lee explained. 

“And look how that turned out!” Kanan snapped. 

“That’s what I don’t understand…” Mr. Lee muttered. “How did the Inquisitor find out about Ezra and why did they take Hiro?”

“A-are they… I mean you said he killed people like Ezra’s mother…” Hera stammered, voice cracking. 

“I don’t think he wants to kill Ezra… if he wanted him dead we would have found his body at the house no…he wants them both for something…but what?” Mr. Lee muttered. “Kanan, I need you to send me everything you have on the search and send me any new information you find.”

“Why?” Kanan asked. 

“If your men try and rescue the boys, anyone you send in will be dead,” Mr. Lee said. “He’s trained to kill supers, humans with guns will not be able to take him down.” 

“You underestimate the police officers of this city!” Kanan snapped. 

“And you overestimate them!” Mr. Lee countered. 

“Here…I have something that might help,” Mildred said, handing Mr. Lee a CD. 

“Yes…yes…” Mr. Lee agreed slipping the disc into the disc comportment. The screen came to life and showed a man and a woman who were very obviously Ezra’s parents; he had his mother’s eyes and fathers’ dark blue hair. 

“Hello sweetheart,” Mira said. “I wish I could tell you this in person but…I can’t.”

“It’s hard to explain but…we had to give you up for your safety,” Ephraim added. "The gift your mother has would leave you vulnerable to being used....or worse."

“Yes…we love you so much but…if you stayed with us your life would have been in such terrible danger.” Mira continued. “Though we can’t be with you, I hope you know that we love you more than anything in the world and all we want is for you to be happy.”

“Live your life to the fullest,” Ephraim agreed. “Don’t spend your life hiding in fear. Everything we’re doing we’re doing so you can live without fear. We both love you so much.”

With tears in her eyes, Mira reached out to the screen saying, “Goodbye sweetie…” with that the video ended. 

“Ezra having any association with supers would have put him in danger so we tried to do everything to assure his parents sacrifice meant something…but I failed…” 

Mildred placed a hand on Mr. Lee’s shoulder saying, “You did not fail. You did everything you could.”

"How do you know it was this Inquisitor?" Hera asked.

"Because a few days ago I fought him and he said something that didn't make any sense at the time. He said that I might have won the battle but he was going to win the 'war' it all adds up."

“If everything you say is true,” Kanan said. “You have a traitor in your midst.”

“Why would anyone betray a fellow super?” Mr. Lee asked. Kanan stood and said,

“It looks like we’ve both got our work cut out for us.” 

“What do you mean?” Mr. Lee asked. 

“I have no idea how I feel about all this super hero stuff but all I know is that if we want to find both the boys alive we need to work together. So we share anything we find so can rescue the boys,” Kanan declared.


	7. Chapter 7

Hiro curled up in a tight ball and covered his ears, screwing his eyes shut in a desperate attempt to muffle his friends screaming. Hiro had no idea how long the torture had been going on, but he hated to hear his friend suffering like this. Why was he hurting Ezra? He was so nice and caring and didn’t deserve whatever pain that man was putting him through. 

Soon Ezra’s screaming turned to sobbing and Hiro felt himself crack. Tears streamed down Hiro’s face as he heard Ezra’s crying. This was wrong, why was he hurting him? Why couldn’t Hiro be brave like Ezra? He stood up for Hiro when kids bullied him. But this was so much different then school, this man would kill them.

Ezra let out a small whimper and Hiro realized he couldn’t sit there and let him hurt his best friend. Hiro scrambled out of his hiding place, momentarily freezing when he saw what was happening. From what Hiro would see the man wasn’t even touching Ezra but he was curled up on the ground crying and whimpering, covering his ears trying to block out something. 

“Don’t hurt him!” Hiro shouted, throwing him arms forcefully around the man’s legs making him stumble slightly. Without using his hands, he somehow lifted Hiro off of his feet, choking him as he did so. 

“What are you doing?” The man growled. Hiro tried to say something but whatever was holding Hiro was tightening itself around Hiro’s throat making him desperately gasp for air. “You might be more trouble then you’re worth…” He whispered, refusing to let whatever was choking him loosen its grip. He tried to breath, but he couldn’t get air into his lungs and soon dots danced across his vision. 

“Let go of him!” Ezra shouted. A strange force suddenly threw the man back causing Hiro to crumple to the ground, desperately gasping in air. Ezra scrambled over to Hiro, protectively wrapping himself around Hiro. “Are you okay?” Ezra asked, tightly hugging him. Hiro who was still gasping for breath nodded his head against Ezra’s chest, shivering. How did that man do that? Why did he fly back like that? Did Ezra do that? 

The man slowly picked himself up and walked over to the pair, an unreadable expression on his face. Hiro was terrified the man would punish them for what they did and huddled closer to Ezra. As he approached them Hiro saw his twisted smirk and shuttered slightly. The man leered down at them and said,

“Now we’re getting somewhere.” 

\----

Three days, Hiro and Ezra had been missing for three of the longest days of Tadashi’s life and so far they had no leads as to their whereabouts. It was agonizing not knowing where they were or if they were okay or even alive…. No he could not think like that. Hiro was alive. He would come home. 

Tadashi groaned and rolled over, quickly realizing that for the third night in a row he would not be getting any sleep tonight. Tadashi dragged himself out of bed to walk around some and clear his head. As Tadashi wandered he found himself walking into Mr. Lee’s lair. He probably shouldn’t be in here….but then again what would it hurt for Tadashi to do some research and see if he could find anything useful? 

With that thought in mind Tadashi got to work. He really wasn’t sure where to start, so he decided to do some looking into this Inquisitor man. With Mr. Lee’s super hero connections it was not hard to get more information then Tadashi knew what to do with. The first thing Tadashi decided to look into was what this man’s abilities where, hoping to find a way to at least weaken him. Apparently he had very powerful telekinetic powers and was surprisingly once a super hero. 

“Doing some late night research I see,” Mr. Lee tiredly sighed, startling Tadashi.

“Oh I’m sorry Mr. Lee I can leave if-” Tadashi began, awkwardly standing up. Mr. Lee limped over and said,

“No, no it’s fine.” Mr. Lee assured, wincing as he sat down. 

“Are you alright?” Tadashi asked. 

“That fight took a lot out of me…” Mr. Lee admitted. 

“Will you be alright?” Tadashi asked. 

“Eventually,” Mr. Lee assured. “I’m not young anymore Tadashi, it’s getting harder and harder to bounce back after a bad fight.” 

“If…when we find out where Hiro and Ezra where taking will you be able to take on this Inquisitor?” 

“I…I don’t know,” Mr. Lee admitted. “I’ve been trying to find others who might be able to help but….with the Inquisitors growing strength more and more supers are going into deep hiding.”

“And you can’t find them?” Tadashi asked. 

“No,” Mr. Lee sighed. 

“How can we beat him then?” Tadashi asked. 

“We’ll have to figure that out,” Mr. Lee said. The pair fell into an uncomfortable silence, both realizing how daunting the task ahead was becoming. No leads and no one strong enough to take on this monster. Mr. Lee’s phone suddenly went off, shattering the silence. Mr. Lee pulled out his phone saying,

“Hello this is Stan Lee….oh hello Kanan. Hold on let me put you on speaker, Tadashi is with me.” Mr. Lee pulled the phone away and pushed a button saying, “All right can you hear me?”

“Yep,” Kanan said. 

“All right go ahead.” Mr. Lee said. 

“Well…I have good news and bad news.” Kanan began. “We found two men matching the descriptions of the ones who took the boys.”

“That’s great!” Tadashi exclaimed, feeling light headed, “Have they given you anything?”

“Well that’s the bad news,” Kanan sighed. “We found them in a ditch. Someone shot them.” 

“So they were…dead…” Tadashi whispered, heart sinking. 

“Yea…seems like their boss was not happy with them.”

“So we have nothing,” Tadashi mumbled, feeling sick. Back to square one. Maybe even less because now they had no living suspects to look for. 

“Well we have a team analyzing the bodies to see if we can find anything,” Kanan said. “So….it’s something.” 

“It doesn’t feel like it is…” Tadashi grumbled. 

“Trust me, it is,” Kanan assured. “I’ll send you over anything they find.”

“Thank you,” Mr. Lee said before hanging up the phone. 

“If our only suspects are dead, how are we supposed to find them?” Tadashi asked. 

“No they aren’t,” Mr. Lee said. “Well not all. Remember their is the inquisitor.” 

“The last time anyone saw him and survived was…eons ago! No one knows what he even looks like now!” Tadashi exclaimed, standing up and pacing. “We have nothing!” 

“Kanan thinks we might have something,” Mr. Lee reminded.

“And what if he’s wrong?” Tadashi demanded, “I mean he is human!”

“What if he’s right?” Mr. Lee interjected. “We just don’t know for sure yet.” Tadashi collapsed back into the chair and grumbled,

“I know that…”

“Worrying won’t do you any good,” Mr. Lee said. 

“How can I do anything but worry?” Tadashi asked. 

Mr. Lee sadly nodded in agreement and said, “It’s hard to do anything but worry when you’re a parent.” Tadashi simply nodded his head. What could he say to that? 

“I’m going to keep researching…see if I can find anything useful,” Tadashi informed Mr. Lee.

“All right…” Mr. Lee reluctantly sighed. “If you have any questions or need help come find myself or Heathcliff.”

“Okay,” Tadashi said, turning his attention back to the computer. The odds were stacked again him, but he would not give up. Hiro needed him and he would do everything in his power to make sure he came home safely.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has left reviews :D

“Focus boy!” The man growled at Ezra who was desperately trying to make a can move without even touching it, a feat Ezra would have sworn was impossible until yesterday….or was it two days ago? Ezra couldn’t recall and didn’t have the energy to try and sort it out. 

“I’m…trying…” Ezra said through gritted teeth, focusing with all his might on making the can move. 

“Maybe you need a bit of persuasion,” the man growled, lifting an exhausted Hiro off of the ground.

“No!” Ezra shouted. “Please don’t hurt him!”

“Then make. It. Move.” He growled, choking Hiro. 

“I’m trying!” Ezra shouted, tears streaming down his face. 

“Try harder,” The inquisitor growled as Hiro’s struggling grew weaker. Ezra shut his eyes and focused with all of his might on the can moving. “You better hurry…” The man taunted. 

“Stop it!” Ezra shouted, causing the can to shoot into the air and hit the ceiling before hitting the floor again. Wordlessly the man let Hiro collapse to the ground, gasping for air. Terrified, Ezra ran over to Hiro who was lying on the ground, weakly gasping for air. Ezra pulled Hiro against his chest and tightly held onto him, crying. 

“E-E-Ezra?” Hiro weakly moaned.

“I’m sorry!” Ezra cried, rocking Hiro back and forth. 

“N-n-not….your….f-fault…” Hiro whispered. Ezra tightened his grip around Hiro, hating himself for being the cause of all of this. 

“Enough of this,” the man said, ripping Hiro out of Ezra’s grip but thankfully not choking him. 

“Please stop hurting him!” Ezra begged.

“Get better and I will,” the man sneered, clenching his hand causing Hiro to start gasping.

“Stop please!” Ezra begged. 

“Keep going,” the man snarled. Choking on a sob, Ezra did as he said. He’d do whatever he said if it would keep Hiro safe.

\-----

After two days of waiting, Tadashi realized the men’s bodies would not give them any clues as to the boys’ whereabouts. They had nothing to go on, no leads, and no hope. Tadashi desperately combed through all the information Mr. Lee had on the inquisitor trying to find something anything that would help them recue the boys. Kanan was even in the lab helping Tadashi look. He claimed it was ‘research’ so he could know more about the enemy, but Tadashi could tell how worried Kanan was. 

“How does this help?” Tadashi snapped, pushing himself away from the desk suddenly. “We have nothing.”

“We can’t give up,” Kanan said, not looking away from the computer. “If we give up we’ll never find them.”

“And doing the same thing over and over again even though it isn’t working will also result in not finding them!” Tadashi snapped. 

“These things take time,” Kanan calmly said. His calm tome though only made Tadashi angrier.

“If you actually cared about them you-” Tadashi began. Tadashi seemed to have crossed some sort of line though because Kanan suddenly stood and roared,

“My son is missing too you know!” 

“You’re sure not acting like it!” Tadashi snapped. 

“What do you want me to do? Run around screaming at the people trying to save them for not moving fast enough?” Kanan snapped. “I have to stay calm or else I make mistakes and mistakes lead to me failing my job! And I will not fail!” 

Tadashi collapsed back into his chair, feeling drained. “I’m sorry…I shouldn’t be so angry…”

Kanan tiredly sighed and said, “I understand. Even I’m not happy with how long this is taking but…these things are never fast….as parents though it’s hard to remember that…”

“I’m sorry,” Tadashi mumbled. “I wasn’t being fair.”

“Listen I know it seems like I don’t care but… I can’t think about the fact that it’s my son out their…if I do I’ll lose my head,” Kanan admitted. “And that’s the last thing we need right now.”

“One overly emotional guardian is more than enough…” Tadashi said, forcing out an awkward laugh. The pair fell into an awkward silence for several minutes that Tadashi was struggling to fill when Mr. Lee limped inside asking,

“Everything alright in here?”

“We’re fine,” Tadashi assured. “Just…stumped on how to help the boys…”

“I know,” Mr. Lee agreed. “We practically need to find a way to scan the entire city for them.”

“Yea…” Tadashi halfheartedly agreed before perking up. “Scan….what if…what if we could?” Tadashi said.

“What do you mean?” Kanan asked, but Tadashi wasn’t listening.

“I could build a scanner that could scan the city! But…I don’t have anything to use to…Baymax!” Tadashi shouted, turning to face the confused pair. 

“Baymax?” Kanan asked. 

“He’s a healthcare companion!” Tadashi exclaimed.

“How does that help us?” Kanan asked. 

“He scanned Hiro and has all of the information stored on his chip!” Tadashi exclaimed. “I can build a giant scanner that could scan the city for someone matching Hiro’s info!” 

“Can you build something like that?” Mr. Lee asked.

“I can try!” Tadashi declared. 

“And what if Hiro and Ezra aren’t together?” Kanan asked. 

“It’s a start,” Tadashi said. “Even if they aren’t Hiro might know something.”

“It would be more then we have now,” Mr. Lee added. 

“Before we get too excited we should check that this Baymax have the information you need.” Kanan said. 

“Baymax is at my school,” Tadashi said. 

“Well then what are we waiting for! Let’s go!” Mr. Lee exclaimed. 

“Or I could go and bring him ba-”

“I’d feel better if I went with you,” Kanan said. “You could be a target.”

Tadashi wanted to argue, he didn’t need a babysitter! But he also knew that they didn’t have time to argue; besides having some protection did make Tadashi feel a bit better.

“All right,” Tadashi agreed. “But we should get moving.”

“I’ll drive,” Kanan said, standing up and striding out of the lair, Tadashi hot on his heels. As they raced through the mansion they passed by Fred who exclaimed,

“Tadashi! I can’t believe you’re out! I was actually loo-”

“Sorry Fred but no time to chat,” Tadashi said. “I may have found a way to get the boys!” 

“You did!” Fred exclaimed. 

“Yes, I’ll explain on the way let’s go!”

\-----

As Kanan drove them to Tadashi’s college Tadashi explained his idea to Fred who looked ecstatic. 

“This is so cool!” 

“I just hope it works…” Tadashi sighed. 

“Hey if you make it, it will!” Fred assured. 

“I hate to break up the happy moment but even if we find them we don’t really have a plan to take him down,” Kanan said. 

“Once I have the scanner up and running I’ll start working on something that could inhibit this Inquisitors powers,” Tadashi offered. 

“Oh or maybe make us all super suits!” Fred offered. “Or maybe both!”

“Maybe…” Tadashi said as they pulled up to the school. Before the car had fully stopped Tadashi jumped out and ran into the building, not stopping top ensure Fred and Kanan where following. Tadashi shoved passed students and teachers, not caring that he was being rude. This was his little brother. He didn’t care if he was being rude, he needed to find him! Once he reached his lab he opened his office door and stepped inside, Fred and Kanan hot on his heels. 

“Ow,” Tadashi said once inside, causing Baymax to activate and inflating saying,

“Hello I am Baymax your personal heathcare companion. On a sca-”

“Baymax I’m not injured but I need to know if you still have the information from my little brother Hiro’s scan.” 

“Of course,” Baymax said. “I store all date from every scan I take.” 

“Yes!” Tadashi whispered. “Fantastic! Baymax I need you to send the information to me.”

Baymax pulled up Hiro’s information saying, “I am sending it to you now….the information has been sent. May I offer you further assistance?” Tadashi whipped out his phone and after ensuring he received an email from Baymax he said,

“Nope I’m satisfied with my care.” With that Baymax waddled over to his charging station and deflated. 

“I can’t believe it!” Tadashi said, feeling light headed. “We’re going to find the boys!”


	9. Chapter 9

Tadashi spent the next several days diligently working on a scanner that could scan entire cities at a time to search for Hiro. It was not easy though, a machine like this had a lot of potential bugs like accidentally finding the wrong person or completely missing the person you were looking for. 

Despite all of the potentially disastrous flaws Tadashi pressed on. How could he not? Though he already had built an advanced scanner for Baymax, building one that could scan entire cities at a time quickly and efficiently was something else entirely. If he wanted it to scan a larger area at a time he’d have to sacrifice some efficiency and even risk it missing something. But having a small area meant more times a city would need to be scanned and opened up the possibility of an entire section of a city being skipped over. Both scenarios had a high probability of the machine not finding Hiro even though he was in the city being scanned. He was determined to find a perfect balance.

Tadashi knew he was spending an unhealthy amount of time in the lair working, but every second he spent not working was another second Hiro was missing. He didn’t eat, didn’t sleep, all he could think about was getting the machine done, having Hiro back in his arms safe and sound. Though Fred begged him to take care of himself, his pleas went ignored. The last time Tadashi had tried sleeping he watched in horror and a faceless monster slaughtered his brother right in front of him. It was agonizing. After that Tadashi refused to let himself sleep, drinking buckets of coffee to keep himself awake. 

“I brought you something,” Mr. Lee said, startling Tadashi out of his thoughts. 

“I’m not stopping,” Tadashi snapped, not looking away from what he was currently working on. 

“I didn’t say anything about stopping,” Mr. Lee said. “I just brought you something to drink.”

“What is it?” Tadashi snapped.

“Something to help you relax,” Mr. Lee said. “Trust me it will do wonders in helping you focus and work better.” Those words made Tadashi pause in his work, he was having a hard time focusing on his work and something that could help him do that sounded wonderful. But what if it was a trick?

“Are you positive this will help me focus?” Tadashi asked. 

“Yes,” Mr. Lee assured. 

“Good,” Tadashi said, snatching the cup and downing the contents. Almost instantly everything got dizzier and black spots danced across his vision. Before Tadashi could demand to know what Mr. Lee had done to him, darkness consumed him.

\----

It had become nearly impossible for Kanan to bring himself to actually go home. Hera spent almost all of her time at the hospital waiting for either Sabine or Zeb to wake up making the house painfully empty. Everywhere he looked where reminders of the fact that his son was missing and his daughter was in the hospital.

Zeb was in the ICU from getting shot multiple times and Sabine hadn’t woken up from a nasty blow to her head. Zeb had woken up several times but he had been extremely confused and not entirely lucid but the doctors where confident he would pull through; they were far more worried about Sabine. On top of worrying about the possibility that he would never find Ezra, he also had to fight the fear that Sabine would never wake up. 

He couldn’t let himself think like that. Sabine would wake up and Tadashi’s invention would work and they would both have their families back safe and sound. He didn’t think he’d be able to continue on if they didn’t make it… Kanan’s phone went off startling him out of his thoughts. Hera. Kanan felt his heart start hammering in his chest when he saw that name. A thousand scenarios flashed through Kanan’s mind, each thought worse than the previous. Before it could go to voicemail Kanan answered,

“Hera what is it?”

“It’s Sabine!” Hera exclaimed. “She woke up!”

\----

Kanan honestly couldn’t remember the rest of the conversation with Hera or the drive to the hospital. All he could think about was his little girl was awake and terrified. No one questioned Kanan was pretty sure everyone would understand him suddenly racing out of the police station and recklessly driving to the hospital, and if he didn’t he’d tell them to shove it, this was his daughter! When he finally arrived he found Hera nervously pacing outside Sabine’s room.

“What’s going on?” Kanan asked. 

“They’re doing some tests…” Hera told him. “She was so scared when she woke up, all she could think about was Zeb and the boys and I didn’t get a chance to talk to her before the doctors made me leave…”

“We’ll talk to her together,” Kanan said, placing his hands on his shoulders. Hera smiled and tightly wrapped her arms around him, a wave of guilt washing over him as he tightly held her back. He’d been spending so much time worried about finding Ezra, he forgot that the rest of his family was in the hospital. No one should have to deal with all of this alone, a part of him wanted to be here more for her, but every second here was a second not spent helping find their son. He felt himself being dragged in multiple directions and struggled to figure out where he should be and what he should be doing. Kanan heard a door close and looked up to see who he assumed was Sabine’s doctor leaving the room. Reluctantly Kanan let go of Hera to turn his attention to the doctor, Hera simply responded by wrapping an arm around his waist, so Kanan did the same. 

“How is she?” Kanan asked, anxious to go inside and see her. 

“She’s awake but she might not stay awake for very long,” The doctor said. 

“Can we go in?” Hera asked. 

“Yes of course,” He said. 

“Thank you,” Hera said as the pair walked inside. Kanan and Hera sat down in the chairs next to the bed, Kanan saying,

“Hey sweetie. How are you feeling?”

“Dad, please are the boys okay?” Sabine asked eyes glossy. 

“We’re more worried about yo-” Kanan assured but this only seemed to upset her more.

“No! I need to know if they’re okay! The men who broke in kept asking where Ezra was. I-I had no idea what they were going to do to him and Zeb-”

“Zeb will be alright,” Kanan assured. “He’s on a lot of pain medication so he’s a little confused but he will be alright.”

“And Ezra?” Sabine asked. 

“Sweetie you need to worry ab-” Kanan soothingly said but Sabine snapped,

“What happened to him!” Kanan sighed heavily and glanced over at Hera who solemnly nodded her head. 

“We aren’t sure.” Kanan reluctantly admitted. “He and Hiro where both missing when we got there.” 

“They took Hiro too?” Sabine asked, a horrified look on her face.

“Yes,” Kanan said. 

“Y-y-you will find them, right dad?” Sabine desperately asked, looking like she would completely shatter if he said no. If Kanan was honest with himself though, he knew he would shatter if he didn’t find them. 

Kanan reached over and firmly held Sabine’s hand and looked her in the eye and promised, “I swear I’ll do everything I can to find them.” Sabine nodded her head, tears streaming down her face and asked,

“Then why are you here?”

“Sweetie you just woke up an-” Kanan argued but Sabine shook her head, looking exhausted.

“I’ll….sleep for a while…please find the boys….” Kanan glanced over at Hera who nodded her head, a look of determination on her face. 

“Go, we’ll be fine,” Hera assured. 

“Are you sure? You shouldn’t be al-” Kanan argued but Hera wouldn’t hear it.

“Yes I’m sure. I know Sabine and Zeb will be fine, what I don’t know is if Ezra will be. Please go.” Kanan nodded his head, lips tightly pressed together and said,

“I will find them.”

\-----------

Hiro lay on the freezing cold ground, having no energy to even shift himself around to make himself a bit more comfortable. Every time Hiro opened his eyes the room spun out of control, so he kept his eyes firmly shut and tried to ignore the churning of his stomach. Painful coughing racked his small frame, once the coughing finally stopped; Hiro curled up into a tight ball, shivering uncontrollably. 

He wanted to go home. He wanted his warm bed and his brothers comforting arms around him. Tadashi could make anything better. He said he’d do anything for Hiro, so why hadn’t he come to save them yet. Maybe the man was right, maybe no one was coming for them….

Hiro felt something being draped over his body and slowly opened his eyes to see Ezra kneeling next to him, carefully pulling a raggedy blanket over him. Hiro knew Tadashi would want him to share since they obviously only had this to keep them warm, but he was so cold he really couldn’t bring himself to care about sharing so he tightly wrapped the blanket around himself and tried to go to sleep, only for another coughing fit to wrack his small frame. He was so thirsty and would give anything for some water…

Hiro heard someone weakly cough next to him and looked up to see Ezra was coughing, sounding miserable. He was probably cold and thirsty too. Hiro tried to open his mouth to tell him to come closer, but his throat was so dry he started to cough when he tried to speak. Determined to help his friend, Hiro dragged himself closer and weakly tugged on Ezra’s sleeve. Ezra looked down at him, looking exhausted. Shivering uncontrollably, Hiro lifted the blanket up, trying to tell him to share. 

For a moment Hiro was worried Ezra would refuse, but then he dove under the blanket and curled up next to Hiro, shivering as well. At least he was a little warmer now. As Hiro finally started to drift off to sleep, he realized that no one was coming for them. They had been abandoned.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in posting, things have gotten pretty crazy for me lately. Hope you guys enjoy!!!

Ezra was so tired, but no matter how he shifted he couldn’t fall asleep. He wanted to go to sleep like Hiro did, but he was terrified that the man would come back while they were asleep and hurt Hiro. Why did he want to force Ezra to use these powers? He had the same abilities as Ezra, why did he need him? Why wouldn’t he let Hiro go home?

Eventually Ezra drifted off into a fitful sleep, waking up when he or Hiro had a coughing fit. Ezra wasn’t sure where the man went or when he’d be back but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He’d tried to get them out through the doors but all of them where firmly locked. He didn’t understand why dad hadn’t come to save them. He always saved other children when they were missing, so why hadn’t he come for them? The door slammed open, startling Ezra awake. Hiro twitched and moaned next to him, coughing uncontrollably. 

“Get up,” The man snapped, throwing a water bottle and piece of bread at Ezra who snatched both up and greedily gulped down some water before biting into the bread. Though it hurt to swallow the bite he was too relieved to finally have some food to care. He wanted to scarf the scrap of food down all by himself but stopped himself. No, Hiro was probably hungry too. Reluctantly he reached over and gently shook Hiro saying,

“Hiro, Hiro wake up.” Hiro groggily blinked his eyes and slowly sat up mumbling,

“Huh…?”

“Here,” Ezra said, handing Hiro the water bottle. With shaking hands, Hiro removed the lid and greedily gulped down the remaining water and started to lie back down. Ezra grabbed his arm saying,

“No Hiro come on you need to eat too.” Hiro stared at the piece of bread for a full minute before mumbling,

“’m not hungry…” 

“You gotta eat though,” Ezra begged. Hiro shook his head and curled up in a tight ball, shivering uncontrollably. The man grabbed Ezra’s arm and yanked him away from Hiro hissing,

“Stop talking, we have work to do.”

“But I think Hiro’s sick!” Ezra exclaimed, coughing uncontrollably as well. 

“He’s just a filthy human,” the man said. “His life is utterly worthless.” 

“No it’s not!” Ezra cried, throat scratching painfully. 

“I could kill him right now and not feel a thing…” The man continued. “He is far more difficult than he is worth.” He added, slowly lifting Hiro into the air with his mind. “Humans are so fragile. It would be so easy to snap him like a twig.” Hiro weakly started thrashing in the air, this time Ezra knew nothing he said would stop the man from killing Hiro. 

“Don’t you dare hurt him!” Ezra shouted, throwing his arms out sending the man flying back with more force then the first time he’d thrown him. 

Ezra thought he’d be angry, but he simply laughed. “You’re more like me then you care to admit boy.”

“I’m nothing like you!” Ezra snapped. 

“Look at what you did to serve your own goal,” He said. “We are very alike…one day you’ll be able to take my place.” 

“No!” Ezra shouted. “I want to help people like my dad!” 

“You want to be like him?” the man sneered. “The man who abandoned you?”

“He’s coming for us!” Ezra determinedly shouted, causing him to start coughing painfully. 

“Then why hasn’t he come yet?” The man asked. Ezra felt his heart sink at his words. Why hadn’t dad come yet? Ezra’s misery must have shown on his face, a sickening smirk spread across his face as he said, “it’s because he won’t ever come. Face it boy, you’re not really his son, you don’t mean anything to him. You’re nothing more than a freak, just like me.” Ezra shook his head, but Ezra wasn’t sure he entirely believed himself anymore, and the man knew this. 

“You family, your so called friend, none of them care about you. They never have and they never will. I’m the only one who can ever understand you.” 

“No! You’re wrong! Hiro cares about me!” Before the man could respond, one of the man’s new henchman walked in saying,

“I am so sorry sir but uh theirs something you’re needed for…” The man faced the newcomer and glared at him saying,

“Fine,” and turned his attention back to Ezra, “Remember boy. In the end your little friend is merely human.” And strode out of the room. Shaking Ezra crawled over to Hiro whispering,

“W-w-what if he’s right? What if….I turn into something like him?” Hiro groggily sat up and stared at Ezra, a look of concentration on his face. 

“You…won’t…” Hiro croaked, starting to let out a wet cough. 

“How do you know?” Ezra whimpered, tears streaming down his face. 

“You’re too nice…” Hiro sleepily mumbled. 

“You really believe that?” Ezra asked. Hiro nodded and weakly smiled before coughing again. 

“You’re my best friend…” Hiro mumbled, eyes drifting shut. Scared for his friend, Ezra moved closer to him and hugged him tightly, trying to ignore how the room was starting to spin around him. All they had was each other now. 

\----

Tadashi’s limbs felt like lead. As hard as he tried to get them to move they refused to cooperate. He was trapped inside of his own body. For a moment he feared the Inquisitor found him and did something to him but then remembered Mr. Lee gave him something…Mr. Lee did this to him! After a minute of struggling Tadashi was able to slowly open his eyes and looked around the room he was in, instantly spotting Fred sitting in a chair by the bed he was on reading a comic. 

Tadashi glared at his boyfriend and slowly sat up, catching Fred’s attention. Fred beamed at Tadashi and placed a hand on his shoulder asking,

“Hey Tadashi how are you feeling?” Tadashi glared at Fred and shrugged his hand off and snapped,

“Why did you do that to me?”

Fred stared at Tadashi with a hurt look on his face and asked, “What do you mean?” 

Tadashi was furious with Fred, but it was quickly becoming difficult with him looking like a kicked puppy. “You drugged me.” 

“My dad did that but… he was right you needed to sleep an-”

“Do you even care about finding Hiro?” Tadashi demanded. “I lost hours of work because of this! What if I lose Hiro for good because you decided I needed to sleep!” 

“Tadashi you’re killing yourself!” Fred exclaimed. 

“Hiro’s more important!” Tadashi snapped. 

“Hiro is important but killing yourself because you’re too stubborn to take care of basic needs will not help Hiro!” Fred shouted. Tadashi glared at Fred, secretly knowing that Fred was right which only made him angrier. 

“This wasn’t your choice to make!” Tadashi snapped.

“Don’t you see what you’re doing to yourself?” Fred roared. “You’re so blinded by your need to save Hiro you won’t take care of yourself! I love you both so much and I don’t want to lose either of you!” 

“Fred-” Tadashi groaned.

“No!” Fred snapped. “You’re listening to me for once!” Tadashi stared at Fred in shock at his outburst but didn’t say anything. “You love Hiro and he always comes first I get that, but you can’t keep doing this to yourself! You need to sleep, to eat! I don’t want to lose you because you wouldn’t take care of yourself!” 

“Fred….I…” Tadashi began, awkwardly breaking off. What could he say? “I can’t lose Hiro…”

“I know that!” Fred cried. “I understand I swear! But please you need to take care of yourself too!” Tadashi looked at Fred and sighed heavily,

“I…Fred I just can’t…”

“If not for yourself then for Hiro. If you’re not taking care of yourself you won’t be able to help Hiro,” Fred begged. Tadashi sighed and mumbled,

“I…I’ll try for Hiro.” Fred had a pained expression on his face as he took Tadashi’s hand in his own and hesitantly kissed Tadashi’s cheek. 

“Thank you,” Fred breathed. 

“And for you,” Tadashi added. Fred grinned at Tadashi and pecked his lips.

“You matter too you know,” Fred whispered. 

“Not as much as Hiro,” Tadashi argued. Fred frowned and ran a hand through Tadashi’s hair saying,

“Let’s get you some food and then get back to work okay?”

“Okay,” Tadashi agreed.


	11. Chapter 11

As much as Ezra hated to admit it, even to himself, it was getting a lot easier to use his powers. Without even thinking about it he was able to lift objects in the air and move them around at will. The strange man was pleased, far too pleased. Whatever this man had planned, it would not end well for Hiro.

The man was only concerned with keeping Ezra healthy, once he’d become noticeably sick he kept Ezra and Hiro in separate rooms, even going as far as to make sure Ezra had a bed and food while Hiro slept on the cold hard ground with most likely no food. Though Ezra continued to get stronger, the man still tortured Hiro relentlessly when Ezra failed to meet his standards. The torture though went beyond using his powers to choke Hiro and was now physically beating him. 

Though Hiro’s thin frame was covered in cuts and bruises he refused to be angry at Ezra even though inadvertently he was the reason Hiro was in such bad shape. A part of Ezra wished he was better so this man wouldn’t have a reason to hurt Hiro, but Ezra also knew it might not make much of a difference, he hated humans, and Hiro was human. If Ezra hadn’t had powers they wouldn’t be here and Hiro wouldn’t be so sick and in pain. If he was normal they’d be safe and sound with their families…his family might still love him. 

How could Hiro still care about him when his own family didn’t? Hiro wasn’t afraid of him even though he could easily kill Hiro with this curse he had. The man called his powers a gift, all Ezra saw was a curse. If he could he would never use his powers again, all they did was hurt the people he cared about most. The man though didn’t care that he was hurting innocent people, he didn’t think regular people mattered. 

Ezra tried to understand this man, but nothing he did made sense. He wanted Ezra to be like him, to be his apprentice. But he tortured people Ezra loved. Dad always said if you’re mean to someone a person cares about they won’t like you, so why did this man think hurting Hiro would make him want to have anything to do with the man? 

“Your powers are growing,” the man said. “Why are you holding back?” 

“I don’t want to hurt people,” Ezra said. 

“You are my apprentice and you will do as I say!” the man growled, lifting Hiro off of his feet. 

“No!” Ezra shouted.

“I am your master boy. You will obey me!” The man shouted, “Maybe something a little more…permanent will get the message across.” He continued, pulling out a knife. 

“No, please don’t!” Ezra begged, dropping down on his knees. “I-I’ll be good….master…” the man stared at Ezra for a minute before saying,

“I am your master boy, best you remember that.”

“Y-y-yes….m-master…” Ezra stammered, feeling sick. Suddenly the man flung Hiro to the ground in front of one of his henchman saying,

“Take him out of here; I believe his presence might be distracting my apprentice. See if you can actually make him useful.” The man nodded and dragged Hiro to his feet and took him away, leaving Ezra alone with the man. “Now let’s try again boy.” Ezra slowly stood and willed the three crates in front of him to rise off of the ground, and they did.

“Much better,” the man said a twisted grin on his face. “You’re going to be very strong someday.” 

“H-how do you know?” Ezra stammered, immediately regretting asking the question and winced, expecting some sort of punishment. The man though only patted Ezra’s head giving him a twisted smile saying,

“Your mother was very powerful,” he said. Ezra was surprised to hear that. He knew Ezra’s mother? How? What was she like? He had so many questions, but he knew asking even the one question was risky so he restrained himself. “Now, let’s continue.”

\------  
Hiro didn’t know why he was being taken away from Ezra, but he didn’t have the energy to care. Everything hurt, he would go between being unbearably hot to absolutely freezing and every time he swallowed his throat would start throbbing and he was so hungry. Despite all his pain and discomfort though he was more worried about Ezra. The man was trying to make him do bad things, but Ezra wasn’t a bad person, he was one of the nicest people Hiro knew. But the bad man was trying to make Ezra bad, and that scared Hiro. What would he do to Ezra if he didn’t do what he wanted? 

Suddenly the man lifted Hiro off of his feet and unceremoniously dropped him onto a bed. It was not a very comfy bed, but after spending so long on the floor it felt wonderful. Hiro didn’t understand though, why was he being given a bed now? What was going on?

“You’re not allowed to die boy,” the henchman said. “Boss says we need to make you better.” Why did the man suddenly want Hiro alive? The man shoved a bowl of soup at Hiro saying,

“Eat.” With shaking hands Hiro took the bowl and started to tentatively drink from it. The soup warmed his chilled bones and helped calm his shaking limbs. He greedily scarfed down the rest of the soup, staring at the bowl sadly when he finished it. His hunger was only somewhat quenched by the meager meal and he desperately wanted to ask for more, but he knew that would only result in more pain for himself. 

Hiro carefully set the bowl aside and slowly laid himself down, tightly wrapping the thin blanket around himself in a vain attempt to keep warm. As he drifted off he heard the man slam the door open and then leave, locking it behind him. As Hiro drifted off to sleep, all he could think about was Ezra and pray that he was okay.

\----

“I don’t understand why you’re suddenly so interested in keeping the brat alive,” Kallus groaned, angrily pacing the room the Inquisitor was trying to meditate in. “You spend weeks saying how the kid is worthless and how you want to kill him, and now you’re ordering us to keep him alive?” 

“He was the key to getting my apprentice to…embrace his power,” The Inquisitor replied. 

“What?”

“My apprentice was fond of the boy, feared any harm coming to him. That fear helped him unlock his powers and will help them continue to grow. Now that he has accepted that I am his master the boy can be now used to the best of his abilities.”

“He’s an inhuman too?” Kallus asked.

“No,” The Inquisitor sighed. “But he is brilliant. With some more training, he will be quiet useful.”

“I see,” Kallus said. 

“Perhaps we can finally finish our weapon with his genius.” The Inquisitor continued. 

“Isn’t it a bit early to be thinking about that,” Kallus asked. “Who knows this kid may not turn out to be a smart as you think he is.”

“He is very advanced for his age,” The Inquisitor explained. “Far more advanced than a child who would not one day become very intelligent.” 

“True…” Kallus agreed. 

“And if he becomes a problem, he will die,” The Inquisitor added. 

“Won’t you lose your leverage on the boy?”

“If it does come to that, by the time it does he’ll hate humans so much he’ll be begging to kill him if it comes to that.” The Inquisitor assured.


	12. Chapter 12

As much as Tadashi hated to admit it, he did feel a lot better after getting some sleep and eating. He was having a much easier time focusing on his work at least. He still didn’t forgive Mr. Lee for tricking him though. Except for answering questions or asking Mr. Lee to explain something to him Tadashi didn’t speak to Mr. Lee. He probably didn’t even notice Tadashi’s icy attitude since before all of this Tadashi really hadn’t been speaking much. 

Fred was religious now about getting Tadashi to eat and sleep regularly. Though Tadashi hated taking any breaks from working, he realized in the end he wouldn’t get any more work done depriving himself of sleep, he probably got less work done when he worked through the night rater then stopping for a couple hours to sleep. Though he knew this, it was still hard to tear himself away and wished there was a way he could not sleep but work as if he were getting a full eight hours of sleep. That was an invention of another day though. 

All he could worry about now was getting the scanner up and running so he could start searching for Hiro because he knew this machine was Hiro’s only chance. If he couldn’t figure out how to get this machine working soon, Tadashi feared he’d never find Hiro. 

With shaking hands Tadashi put the finishing touch on the machine and took a step back to admire his handiwork. He prayed that this machine would do what he needed it to and find Hiro and Ezra before it’s too late. No, it would. He would not let himself think about what would happen if it didn’t. 

“So….is it ready?” Fred tentatively asked. 

“I think so,” Tadashi said. “I just need to start it up and then get it in the air.”

Fred stared at Tadashi who didn’t make a move to turn it on. “What are you waiting for?” 

“For it to turn itself on…” Tadashi mumbled. 

“Can it do that?”

“No.”

“So why are you waiting for it to do that?” Fred asked. Tadashi smirked slightly and admitted,

“…I’m scared…”

“Of what?” Fred asked.

“That it won’t work…” Fred tightly wrapped his arms around Tadashi and said,

“Hey I know it will work because you built it!” 

“I hope you’re right…” Tadashi mumbled slowly reaching over to turn it on before freezing and asking, “Do you want to turn it on?” 

“Me?” 

“Yea, you. You’re kind of my good luck charm,” Tadashi admitted. Fred grinned and said,

“Wow sweet! Well then I hope my good luck continues!” Fred declared excitedly hitting the button. Tadashi held his breath as the machine powered up, grinning when the machine powered up properly. “Yea it works!” Fred shouted. 

“It turned on,” Tadashi corrected. “The scanner might not work or it might miss Hiro by mistake o-” 

“Dashi, you need to enjoy the good things or you will lose your mind,” Fred interrupted. “This is a victory!” 

“Right,” Tadashi agreed, trying to force himself to smile. He had something and if it didn’t work he had a base to work off of. No matter how long it took he would find Hiro and bring him home safe and sound. “Okay time to test it out.” Tadashi quickly types something in to see if the machine could pin down where Tadashi was exactly. After a minute Tadashi’s phone dinged with an alert and he opened the message, grinning when he saw the machine sent him the coordinates he found Tadashi at. 

“Does it work does it work?” Fred asked. 

“Yes it does!” Tadashi cried, throwing his arms around Fred, fighting back tears of joy. “It works!” 

\-----

With the machine up and running Tadashi wasted no time in launching it and having it start searching for Hiro. With the search for Hiro underway Tadashi now had to riddle out a way to make it possible to fight the Inquisitor. With Mr. Lee still recovering from his injuries Tadashi realized it would have to be him to go and save them, but to do that he needed something that would give him a fighting chance, he wasn’t a super hero, not like Mr. Lee….

Mr. Lee wasn’t really a hero, he had a suit to help him fight, maybe he could build something for himself! Tadashi grabbed some paper and quickly started sketching out some ideas for a suit. 

“Tadashi!” Fred shouted, throwing his arms around him. “What are you doing? I thought the machine was working?”

“Your dad won’t be able to help rescue the boys so I have to be the one to go after them and I need a way to fight the Inquisitor.”

“You? Alone?” Fred asked, extremely worried. 

“Mr. Lee hasn’t been able to get in touch with anyone else so it has to be me,” Tadashi stubbornly said. 

“You can’t go alone though!” Fred protested. “Let me go with you!” 

“Hell no,” Tadashi said. “It’s too dangerous!”

“Then why are you going?” Fred asked. 

“My little brother needs me,” Tadashi stubbornly said. 

“And my boyfriend needs me!” Fred declared. “Let me help!”

Though Tadashi hated the idea of Fred being in danger as well, he knew Fred would stop at nothing to go with him so reluctantly he said,

“All right.”

\----------  
After several hours of long stop work, Tadashi was able to put together two suits that would hopefully be able to help him in a fight. Though the suits would help protect him, he had no idea how they would fare against a man with powers.

“Tadashi I need to speak to you,” Mr. Lee said, slowly limping into the room. As annoyed at Mr. Lee as Tadashi was, he was worried about how long it was taking him to recover. 

“Are you alright?” Tadashi asked. 

“I’ll recover,” Mr. Lee assured. “But I’ve been working on something that might inhibit the Inquisitors powers.”

“Might?” Tadashi skeptically asked. 

“There’s no way to really test it,” Mr. Lee said. “But I wanted to do something to help you and Fredrick.”

“How-“

“I know how much your brother means to you and I also see how much Fred cares about you. I know you’ll do everything to help Hiro, and that Fred will be right their behind you whether I want him to or not.” Mr. Lee was right; Tadashi would do anything to get Hiro back. Even in his wildest dreams Tadashi never imagined he’d be fighting a super villain, but for Hiro he’d do it. He should have been scared, terrified even, but he wasn’t. All he felt was the desire to rescue Hiro and Ezra and make the bastard that took them pay. 

“I will get the boys back and I will make sure the Inquisitor never hurts another super again,” Tadashi declared. 

“Tadashi, don’t underestimate him,” Mr. Lee warned. “He is very powerful and very dangerous.”

“I’ve been working on some suits to help me fight, and with the power inhibitor I’ll be fine,” Tadashi dismissively said. 

“That attitude has killed a lot of people,” Mr. Lee warned. “The inhibitor will only work if it’s on him.”

“I have to get it on him?” Tadashi asked.

“Yes.”

“Fine I’ll look into something that I don’t need to put on someone t-” Tadashi was cut off by his phone’s alarm going off and groaned. Did he forget to set the machine to look for Hiro? No, he checked about a thousand times. No he probably forgot to tell the scanner to not look for Tadashi. Great now he’d have to remotely reprogram the dumb thing so it wouldn’t keep alerting Tadashi to when it found him. Grumbling, Tadashi fished his phone out of his pocket and was about to dismiss the alert until he noticed the name flashing on the screen. Hiro. It found Hiro. Heart pounding Tadashi opened the message, terrified it had mixed up Tadashi and Hiro.

Tadashi quickly scanned through the information, a wide grin spreading across his face. No it hadn’t. Whoever it had found, and Tadashi was praying that it actually was Hiro, was somewhere in the very outskirts of the city. Tadashi had assumed Hiro wouldn’t be in the city since they hadn’t been able to find him yet, but according to this Hiro was still in San Fransokyo. The city was huge though, so it was possible for the boys to have stayed hidden for this long. 

Now that he had a lead, Tadashi couldn’t, no wouldn’t, waste time trying to improve Mr. Lee’s power inhibitor. He needed to go, now. Hiro didn’t have much time, according to the scan Hiro was not doing good.

“I know where Hiro is,” Tadashi finally said, mind still reeling. 

“Then go,” Mr. Lee said, handing Tadashi a metal ring. “Snap this around his neck, it should cut off his abilities.”

“What if he finds a way to rip it off?” Tadashi asked. 

“Unlikely, it’s made from a mix of very strong metals, not very easily removed. The only way to get it off is with the remote which will stay here with me.” 

Tadashi nodded and said, “Thank you, for everything.”

“Just be careful, and bring them home,” Mr. Lee said.

“I will.”

\--------

Things where not going well at all. The human seemed to only be getting sicker and now had somehow gotten his apprentice sick again. Though the Inquisitor was certain his apprentice would recover, he feared the human would die if he did not get better soon. Though the death of a human, no matter how brilliant, did not particularly bother him he feared his apprentice might go rouge if the boy perished right now. He doubted he could convince his apprentice he returned the boy home, and simply disposing of him would not work. But, if one of his men where to be the one to kill the boy, he could convince his apprentice of how evil the humans where. Yes, yes this could work in his favor. He’d have to be very careful though, one wrong step and he will lose any grip he had on the boy. The reward though was well worth the risk, soon his apprentice would be his, forever.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this chapter but it's finally ready. Sorry it took so long I kind of lost inspiration to write for awhile but I'm back and determined to finish this!!

Tadashi was quickly starting to regret not listening to Mr. Lee about getting some practice in the suit before going off to rescue Hiro. He had thought that since he built it he’d have a relatively easy time using it which was sadly not the case. He was struggling to fly in a straight line, though having to carry Fred was not helping much. He was so excited about being a super hero, Tadashi feared he’d forget what they were supposed to be doing. Maybe he should have brought someone else. But who? As much as Tadashi loved the others, could any of them be any better help?

Though Wasabi looked terrifying at times, he was too easily spooked to agree to do anything even remotely like this. And Honey Lemon was too sweet to want to have anything to do with something so violent. Gogo though…she was tough, didn’t care easily and was not afraid to punch someone. There was still the problem that she didn’t know about Mr. Lee and it would be difficult to explain the suit. 

Tadashi loved Fred, but Tadashi feared he may be in over his head. But there wasn’t any other option so he’d just have to make sure Fred didn’t get hurt in this insane mission. Get in, find the boys, keep Fred safe, get the inhibitor on the Inquisitor while still keeping Fred safe and get everyone out. Simple right? Tadashi still hadn’t quiet convinced himself of that. 

This was dangerous, borderline suicidal, but he had to try. Hiro’s life was at stake. Soon they reach the coordinates and Tadashi carefully lowered Fred to the ground before landing himself, stumbling forward when he did. Not a very graceful landing, but at least he didn’t fall flat on his face. 

The pair cautiously started moving around the building, tense and waiting for some sort of attack. The building was crumbling and looked as if it had been abandoned for years. Could someone really be imprisoning the boys here?

“Tadashi?” Fred whispered, making Tadashi jump slightly and whirl around hissing, 

“Don’t scare me like that!”

“Sorry but I think there’s someone else here,” Fred hissed. 

“Well…yea that’s why we came here,” Tadashi groaned, regretting bringing Fred more and more by the second. 

“No I mean someone else is looking for someone here,” Fred corrected. 

“Huh?” Tadashi asked. Fred pointed over at a police car parked across the street partially obstructed by a large tree with low hanging branches. A police car? Why was a police car here? Kanan said he’d update them on anything the police found…unless an officer was involved? 

“Boys,” A voice hissed making Tadashi jump again and look behind him. 

“Kanan? What are you doing here?” Tadashi hissed. 

“Mr. Lee told me you had a lead on finding the boys,” Kanan explained. “And Mr. Lee felt it would be good to have me come over here as well.”

“It’s way too dangerous though!” Tadashi hissed. 

“I’m a police officer,” Kanan said. “I face danger every day.”

“This is a super villain though who is super powerful!” Tadashi exclaimed. 

“And you’re just teenagers,” Kanan countered. 

“Do we really have time to argue?” Fred asked. 

“No,” Tadashi grumbled. “We need to get in there and get the boys!” 

“Hold up,” Kanan said. “We can’t all just go and charge in there.”

“Why not?” Tadashi snapped.

“If this man is powered he’d take us all out if we just charge. No we need a plan,” Kanan informed him. 

“Do you have one?” Tadashi demanded, hating that they were sitting there practically waiting to be caught or seen. 

“I’ll head in through the front,” Kanan said. “You two sneak in from the roof or something and try and catch him by surprise.” 

“A sneak attack?” Tadashi asked, completely unconvinced that such a simple plan could work on someone as powerful as the Inquisitor. 

“Seems better then charging in guns blazing,” Kanan countered. 

“He’s got a point,” Fred agreed. 

“Fine, fine,” Tadashi groaned. “Let’s just get going!”

\-----

Something bad was going to happen, Ezra wasn’t sure how he knew exactly, he just…knew. Master was tense and he hadn’t seen Hiro in days. What was going on? Was Hiro okay? What was Master going to do?

“You’re distracted,” Master coldly informed him. 

“I’m sorry master,” Ezra mumbled, looking away. 

“Don’t apologize, work.” Master snapped.

“Yes master…” Ezra mumbled. Before Ezra could begin the doors burst open and Kallus strode in, dragging….his father in?

“I found this worm sneaking around,” Kallus informed him, throwing his dad onto the ground.

“Why would you bring him here?” Master roared, throwing Kallus against the wall. Kallus crumpled to the ground in an unmoving heap. Dad actually came for him? He cared about him?

“Ezra!” Kanan shouted, eyes lighting up. 

“Dad!” Ezra shouted, tears of joy streaming down his face. Master was wrong! Dad loved him!

“Silence boy!” Master snapped, lifting dad off of the ground with his powers, choking him. 

“No!” Ezra shouted, “don‘t hurt him!”

“You are mine!” Master growled. 

“Not likely!” Another voice shouted, dropping down from the ceiling. The person’s back was to Ezra so all he could see was the red and purple armor he wore. The man then charged at master, raising his fist to punch him. Before his fist could connect his entire body froze. Without dropping dad, Master flung the man against the wall with ease. 

“Gravity crush!” Another voice shouted, and someone in a monster suit dropped down on Master as well. With an eye roll Master stopped the monster man midair and threw him against the man in the suit, while still choking dad. His dads thrashing was quickly becoming weaker and Ezra was terrified master would kill him. The man in the suit charged at master again, this time his fist connecting with masters face causing him to drop his dad to the ground, gasping for air. 

“Dad!” Ezra shouted, running over to him. Still gasping for air, dad scooped Ezra into his arms and held him protectively against his chest as Master turned his attention to the man in the suit, who Ezra finally saw was Tadashi. Tadashi was here too?

Ezra hoped Tadashi’s suit would maybe help him fight like a superhero, but even with the suit he wasn’t a match for master. Tadashi raised his fist and launched the suit fist at master who stopped it with a lazy wave of his hand and sent it back at Tadashi. The robotic hand hit Tadashi in the chest and threw him back against the wall. The person in the monster suit charged at Master who lifted one of the crates and hit the person in the monster suit. With both of them taken care of, Master ripped Ezra out of dad’s arms hissing, 

“You are mine boy! If he knew the truth about you, he would never love you!” 

“Your wrong,” Dad gasped, stumbling to his feet. “He’s my son and I will love him no matter what!” 

“Lies, all lies!” Master hissed. “Humans are all the same, they fear us, so they kill us!” 

“No! I know my dad and he’d never do that!” Ezra exclaimed. 

“Your father’s job is to kill people!”

“Bad people,” Ezra corrected. 

“All humans are bad,” Master said, lifting his dad, Tadashi and the monster person in the air “I will kill these three and show you the truth!” 

“I won’t let you!” Ezra cried. 

“I am your master boy! You will obey me!” Master snapped. 

“No you’re not!” Ezra shouted, throwing his arms out and sending Master crashing into the wall near Tadashi who sluggishly snapped something around his neck. Roaring, Master raised his arms and terrified, Ezra pressed himself close to his dad, but nothing happened. 

“I can still kill you even without my powers!” Master snarled, pulling out his gun and shooting at dad. Dad dove out of the way and shot Master in the chest three times. Master stared at the blood that started pouring out of his wounds in shock, his gun slipping out of his hand. “H-how…?” he gasped before crumpling to the ground, dead. 

\-----

A part of Kanan was glad the Inquisitor had forced his hand like this, the bastard was now dead and could never hurt his son again. That didn’t change the fact though that his son had powers like his birth parents and the Inquisitor which put him in serious danger. How many other hunters like the Inquisitor where out their? Would they be able to track him down as well? Could he protect Ezra from those dangers?

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Tadashi and Fred start to frantically search the building for Hiro and glanced over at Ezra who was slowly backing away from him, looking terrified. A pang of guilt shot through Kanan, he shouldn’t be worrying about that now, Ezra was safe now and that’s what mattered. 

Kanan slowly kneeled down in front of Ezra saying, “I’m sorry I scared you buddy. I just cou-”

“No! S-stay away!” Ezra stammered, backing away from him. 

“Why?” Kanan asked, horrified. Had he scared his son? 

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Ezra cried, tears streaming down his face. 

“Why would you think you’d hurt me?” Kanan asked, slowly reaching out to Ezra. 

“I-I’m a monster,” Ezra whimpered. 

“Ezra why would you think that?” Kanan asked, carefully moving forward. 

“I’m like him…” Ezra whispered, glancing over at the Inquisitors body. 

“You are nothing like him,” Kanan firmly said, wrapping his arms around Ezra and hugging him tightly. “You would never hurt anyone, not like him.” 

“I hurt Hiro…” Ezra whimpered. 

“What are you talking about?” Kanan asked. 

“Hiro got hurt because I was bad,” Ezra whispered. 

“That’s not your fault.” Kanan assured. “The Inquisitor did that, not you.”

“I-If I was good master wouldn’t have hurt him,” Ezra sobbed. 

“Master…?” Kanan asked, momentarily confused before he realized, the Inquisitor was probably this master. Kanan tightened his grip around Ezra, feeling a surge of rage. How much torment had he put the boys through? Kanan forced himself to remain calm; he was dead and would never hurt anyone again. “You didn’t hurt Hiro, he did. And you were not bad.”

“How do you know?” Ezra whispered. 

“Why did he punish Hiro?” Kanan asked. 

“Because I couldn’t use my powers,” Ezra whispered. 

“That’s not bad,” Kanan assured. “You’re not bad. He did that to scare you and make you do what he wanted. That makes him bad, not you.” 

“But I’m like him!” Ezra cried.

“You have similar abilities,” Kanan corrected. “That doesn’t make you bad.”

“Master-”

“He is not your master,” Kanan interrupted. “He was called the Inquisitor.” 

“He said people would fear me and want to hurt me because my powers make me bad.”

Kanan sighed heavily and said, “Yea, I imagine people would be afraid, which is why I’ll do what I can to help you learn to control your abilities.”

“I don’t want to use them!” Ezra exclaimed. “They only hurt people!” 

“Control doesn’t mean using,” Kanan assured. “It means being able to not use it by mistake and use it at will.” 

“Kanan!” Tadashi shouted, running back into the room, cradling Hiro in his arms. “He’s really sick!”

“Help should be here soon,” Kanan assured. 

“Will Hiro be okay?” Ezra whispered. Kanan looked up at Tadashi and Fred uncertainly, but before he could answer he could hear sirens in the distance. 

“Give Hiro to me,” Kanan said. 

“What?” Tadashi snapped, glaring daggers at Kanan and protectively hugging Hiro against him. 

“If you’re seen here wearing that a lot of questions will be asked, questions I know you don’t want to answer.” Kanan informed him, “And them figuring out supers where involved could put both of the boys in danger.”

“I can’t leave him now!” Tadashi snapped. 

“You won’t, I’ll call you and tell you he is being taken to the hospital you can meet us there in regular clothes,” Kanan assured, getting nervous as the sirens got closer and closer. “Please Tadashi, I promise I will stay with him while going to the hospital they just can’t know that supers where involved.” Tadashi had a pained expression on his face as he looked between Hiro and Ezra. 

“Tadashi,” Fred said, flipping down the head of the suit to reveal his face, “Who knows what they’ll do to Ezra if they find out what really happened.” Tadashi looked over at Fred then down at Hiro again who was still unconscious in Tadashi’s arms. Tears started streaming down Tadashi’s face as he kissed Hiro’s forehead and reluctantly gave him to Kanan. Heat radiated from Hiro’s body as he raggedly breathed in and out in Kanan’s arms. This was bad. 

“Please….keep him safe…” Kanan looked Tadashi in the eye and placed a hand on his shoulder saying

“I will I promise.” Tadashi stiffly nodded his head and had the suit spread its wings, grabbed Fred and flew out of the sunroof. Kanan looked down at Ezra saying,

“Listen to me Ezra this is very important, the officers are going to ask why you were taken and you need to tell them all he would say is it was about your birth parents.”

“I thought you said to never lie to an officer…” Ezra mumbled. 

“I know, I know,” Kanan said, running a hand through his hair. “I just need you to do this for me buddy. I-I don’t know what they’ll do to you if they find out you have powers.” 

Ezra uncertainly looked up at him, once again looking terrified. “They’re….afraid of me?” He finally asked. 

“I don’t know,” Kanan admitted. “I want to keep you safe because I love you so much, powers and all. So please, I need you to do this for me until I figure out what’s going on.” He didn’t know what he’d do if they took Ezra away from him. He didn’t care that he was lying to officers and could go to jail; any punishment was worth keeping his son safe. 

Ezra slowly nodded his head and mumbled, “Okay dad.” Kanan smiled at him and still firmly holding Hiro with one arm used the other to hug Ezra. “You’re safe now, I promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys liked it! In case you where wondering why I also tagged Rebels, the characters will be playing a much bigger role in this story which I'm kind of excited about :D.


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